Rajya Sabha loses question hour again

The Rajya Sabha lost its question hour yet again Monday, forcing an angry chairman to ask if the members wanted the question hour at all.

The Rajya Sabha witnessed noisy protests over a slew of issues in the first hour itself that led to two brief adjournments.

When the question hour began at 12 noon, Trinamool Congress members demanded its suspension to discuss the alleged mention of BJP president Amit Shah in Sahara chief Subrata Roy's 'red diary'.

Very soon, Samajwadi Party's Jaya Bachchan was on her feet saying her party colleague Neeraj Shekhar had been told to vacate the government bungalow assigned to him as a Lok Sabha MP.

"He is a two-time Lok Sabha MP, and now in this house... There is police at his house asking him to vacate," Bachchan said. Other Samajwadi Party colleagues joined the protest.

Chairman M. Hamid Ansari tried to pacify them saying it was an issue for the housing committee.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that procedures were being followed and the government would look into Bachchan's complaint.

Sekhar's house was one of the many former Lok Sabha MPs' residences where power and water connections were cut after they refused to vacate.

Samajwadi Party members, however, were not pacified.

Son of former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, Neeraj Shekhar lost the Lok Sabha election from Ballia.

A visibly angry chairman then demanded to know if the members wanted the question hour at all.

"Do the members want the question hour or do not want the question hour, let us decide," Ansari said, before adjourning the house till 1 p.m., the entire length of the hour dedicated to taking up questions for ministers raised by MPs.

The Rajya Sabha shifted question hour from 11 a.m. to 12 noon in order to avoid disruptions because members would normally start protesting as soon as the house met at 11.