A month-long second Budget session commenced on Monday.
The Upper House was adjourned thrice on Monday first until 11 am, then until 1 pm and later till 1:15 pm, after Congress MP's started shouting slogans as they demanded discussions on fuel price hike. A month-long second Budget session commenced today. The Chairman of Rajya Sabha M Venkaiah Naidu said that he did not want to take any "drastic action" on the very first day referring to the sloganeering by the opposition.
Leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjuna Kharge said, "The price of petrol is nearly Rs 100 per litre today. The price of diesel, too, has reached more than Rs 80. LPG prices have also increased. Since 2014, a total of Rs 21 lakh crore have been collected as excise duty. Because of this, the country is suffering, prices are going up." He demanded the suspension of the House proceedings to debate this under Rule 257, reported NDTV.
Mr Naidu did not accept Mr Kharge's demand and said that the issue can be debated "during the course of discussion on the Appropriation bill". After this, the opposition started sloganeering and eventually Mr Naidu adjourned the Upper House. As Assembly elections are about to kick start in four states and a Union Territory- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, and Puducherry, Trinamool Congress leaders, Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Derek O Brien, wrote letters to both Houses, the Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman respectively, calling for the adjournment of the session.
The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now.