Lok Sabha adjourned for the day over demonetisation

The Lok Sabha was on Friday disrupted again, witnessing two adjournments before noon, and being adjourned for the day with ruling and opposition members sparring over the demonetisation issue.

The ruling party members were aggressively blaming the opposition for wasting people's money by not letting Parliament function and asking them to go to Jantar Mantar for a dharna.

When the house met at 11 a.m., Speaker Sumitra Mahajan welcomed a delegation from Vietnam.

She also paid tributes to the martyrs of the Parliament attack on December 13, 2001, and said the cowardly attack was foiled by brave security personnel.

As the Speaker announced taking up the Question Hour, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge was on his feet, but members from the treasury benches shouted back mentioning President Pranab Mukherjee's appeal on the majority being disrupted by the minority in Parliament.

As a verbal spat broke out, the Speaker adjourned the house till 11.30 a.m.

The scene was the same when the house reconvened, and Bharatiya Janata Party member Meenakshi Lekhi said Parliament was not the place for dharnas and opposition members should go to Jantar Mantar.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar said the opposition should apologise to the nation.

"This is not the way... when the majority wants to participate in a discussion, they are disrupting," Kumar said.

"They must apologise to the nation. They are wasting people's money," he said.

The Speaker then adjourned the house till noon.

When the house met again, the Speaker announced that Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann has been found guilty of video-recording Parliament's security system and has been suspended for the rest of the ongoing winter session.

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar introduced the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 amid sloganeering.

As the Speaker announced taking up of the Zero Hour, opposition members began shouting "shame shame".

The Speaker then adjourned the house till Wednesday and said: "Jao sab chhutti par (go on a holiday)".

The Lok Sabha has been witnessing disruptions since the beginning of the winter session on November 16 over the demonetisation issue with the opposition in the house demanding a debate on demonetisation under rules that entail voting.

The government has not agreed to this stating that voting will send a message that there is division in the house.

The Speaker also offered to the opposition to take up a debate without any rule, but the impasse has not been broken.

With holiday on December 12 and 13, Parliament now has only three working days left before the session ends on December 16.

--IANS

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