RS adjourned till noon over Deoria shelter home case

Opposition Aam Aadmi Party and Samajwadi Party today forced a pre-noon adjournment of proceedings in the Rajya Sabha over alleged sexual abuse of young girls at a shelter home at Deoria in Uttar Pradesh.

AAP member Sanjay Singh and MPs belonging to the SP vociferously raised the issue after Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said he has disallowed a notice under Rule 267 that called for setting aside of proceedings of the day to take up the issue.

Naidu said he would allow the issue to the raised as a Zero Hour mention but this did not satisfy members who continued to raise the issue.

Trouble broke soon after the House mourned the death of its former member R K Dhawan and listed papers were laid on the table. Sanjay Singh was up on his seat raising the issue, with SP members joining him thereafter.

Naidu warned Singh that he would name him before adjourning proceedings till 1200 hours.

In a scandal similar to the one in a Muzaffarpur shelter home in Bihar, 24 young women were rescued from a shelter home in Deoria after allegations of sexually exploitation of inmates.

Earlier, the House mourned the death of Dhawan, who passed away yesterday at the age of 81.

Reading an obituary reference, Naidu said Dhawan was a political and social worker who represented the state of Andhra Pradesh in the Upper House from April 1990 to April 1996 and Bihar from July 2004 to July 2010.

"In passing away of Shri R K Dhawan, the country has lost a distinguished parliamentarian and a dedicated social worker. We deeply mourn the passing away of Shri R K Dhawan," he said.

Members stood in silence as a mark of respect to the departed soul.