Lok Sabha adjourned over Telangana issue

New Delhi, August 22: Lok Sabha adjourned for the day on Thursday amid pandemonium after Government moved a motion for the suspension of 11 MPs, including seven from the Congress and four from the Telugu Desam Party, from Andhra Pradesh for disrupting the house.

The protesting MPs not only raised slogans against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh with banners in their hands but also rushed to the well of the Lok Sabha and tried to remove the mike from the Speaker's table.

They kept on shouting "we want justice".

This came during Zero hour when missing coal block allocation files issue had already dominated the proceedings.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath moved a motion to suspend seven Congress and four TDP members for "disturbing the proceedings regularly" since the beginning of the Monsoon session from 5th August.

Moving the motion, Nath said, "Unfortunately the House has not been able to function since the beginning of this session in light of the protests by these members."

Nath brought the motion as TDP members were in the Well protesting division of Andhra Pradesh, repeating the scenes witnessed ever since the session began.

Immediately, members of almost the entire opposition were on their feet, vociferously protesting the motion.

Kalyan Banerjee (TMC) stormed the Well as several members angrily shouted "no, no" in disapproval of the motion.

N Sivaprasad, an agitating TDP member who was in the Well and is among those named by Nath, took out a whip while his party colleague M Venugopala Reddy tried to pull down microphones on the Speaker's podium.

Later, a Congress member who was among those named also stormed the Well along with his agitating party colleagues. He too tried to pull down the microphones. However, alert Lok Sabha staff prevented it.

In the midst of ruckus, Speaker Meira Kumar adjourned the House at around 12:15 PM for nearly 30 minutes.

When the House reassembled, it was adjourned for the day as commotion continued.

However, Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj protested against the move demanding a vote on the resolution saying the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in favour of smaller states like Telangana.

She asked for division of votes on the motion moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath.

TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu spoke to his Parliamentary Party leader Nama Nageshwara Rao on the motion of suspension moved by Kamal Nath.

The decision on the motion is still awaited.

In the process, consideration of the much-touted Food Security Bill, slated to be taken up on Thursday, was again scuttled.

The Land Acquisition Bill, another crucial legislation was also listed on the day's agenda.