Rajya Sabha adjourned for the day, Congress blames 'BJP allies' for disruption

The Rajya Sabha was on Thursday adjourned for the day soon after it met at 3 p.m. after multiple earlier adjournments, amid a ruckus by the TDP and AIADMK members who thronged near the Chair's podium shouting slogans and displaying placards.

The Congress blamed the "allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)" for not allowing the house to function.

The upper house was scheduled to take up the Finance Bill and two Appropriation Bills for discussion and returning to the Lok Sabha. However, the Bills could not be taken up in the house as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the AIADMK members created pandemonium.

The TDP is a partner in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) while the AIADMK is friendly towards the BJP and is with the government for all practical purposes.

The TDP members have been agitating over the alleged "injustice" meted out to Andhra Pradesh by the Centre by not giving it special status, while the AIADMK has been demanding the constitution of a Cauvery Water Board to look into the Cauvery water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien asked the agitating MPs to go back to their seats, saying if the House was not in order he would have to adjourn it and the responsibility for the house's failure to pass the Finance and Appropriation Bills would lie with "those who are shouting slogans".

"The responsibility for not taking up the Finance Bill is on you," Kurien told the MPs who had gathered near his seat before adjourning the house for the day.

Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the house was expected to function but "the allies of the BJP" were not allowing it to.

Earlier, TDP member and former Union Minister Y.S. Chowdary sought permission to complete the statement he was making in the morning under Rule 242 on why he resigned from the government.

However, Kurien said it was appropriate that Chowdary seek the Chairman's permission the next day as it was the latter who had aborted his statement in the morning.

Chowdary had blamed the earlier Congress-led UPA government for rushing with the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 "hastily, unjustly and unscientifically", which led to an uproar in the house.

Naidu then adjourned the upper house till 2 p.m.

--IANS

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