AIADMK legislators suspended from rest of TN assembly session for disrupting house

Chennai, Jun 26 (PTI) AIADMK legislators, including Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami, were on Wednesday suspended from the current assembly session for disrupting the house proceedings.

The opposition party members who came to the assembly on Wednesday clad in black shirts after a day’s suspension on Tuesday, attempted to raise the issue of the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy again and sought an adjournment to discuss it.

Speaker M Appavu said he would decide on the matter but the AIADMK MLAs insisted that the important issue be discussed immediately and continued protesting.

As repeated requests by the speaker asking them to return to their seats did not evoke a response, Appavu ordered their eviction.

Later, the house passed a unanimous resolution barring the AIADMK members from attending the rest of the session till June 29.

After the eviction, the speaker accused the AIADMK members of coming to the house with the intention of creating trouble and not being keen on participating in debates.

“The AIADMK whip gave notice to raise the issue. But they were not prepared to listen to my reply. Instead, they disrupted the proceedings (during Question Hour) and denigrated the decorum of the house through their conduct,” Appavu said.

Chief Minister M K Stalin, who was present on the occasion, said though the house was prepared to discuss the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy, Palaniswami was unwilling to discuss it. “He seems to be interested in leaving the house and addressing the media outside,” Stalin said.

Speaking to reporters outside the assembly, Palaniswami alleged that a deliberate attempt was made to prevent the principal opposition from raising the issue of the tragic deaths due to consumption of spurious liquor in Kallakurichi.

“We have been struggling to raise the issue for the past five days. They said permission will be granted as per rules but they denied permission when we went by the rules,” the former CM said.

He wondered aloud if the assembly could have a different set of rules for the ruling and opposition parties.

Former state health minister Dr C Vijayabaskar said his party wanted to raise its voice for the victims of the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy and that the Leader of the Opposition had been raising the issue on a daily basis and even sought an adjournment for it.

On the party’s suspension for the rest of the assembly session, he told reporters here, “Our general secretary (Palaniswami) will decide on the next course of action. You will see tomorrow what our next plan of action is.” PTI JSP ROH JSP ANE