Proceedings in the Lok Sabha were derailed on Wednesday with repeat adjournments amid protests by Opposition members over various issues, including raids on the premises of National Herald newspaper in connection with a money laundering investigation.
After a day’s peace in the House this week, Congress members for the second-day were in the Well of the House raising slogans against the Modi Government which led to the House being adjourned by Speaker Om Birla first till 12 .
The opposition members also protested over the issue of GST on essential items, inflation and the actions of the Enforcement Directorate.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi was seen asking party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to speak on certain issues. Congress members and DMK leader T R Baalu also urged the Speaker to allow Chowdhury to speak but the permission was not granted.
Congress members also trooped into the Well of the House while some DMK members were seen protesting, standing at their seats.
Three questions and their supplementaries were taken up during the Question Hour amid slogan-shouting.
When the House reconvened Congress leader Chowdhury tried to raise the issue of investigation into the National Herald newspaper, but was disallowed by the chair.
BJP member Rajendra Agarwal, who was in the chair, allowed the laying of parliamentary papers on the table of the House and introduction of the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill by Power Minister R K Singh which, among other, seeks to encourage and replace fossil fuel with non-conventional sources of energy .
The bill makes it mandatory for buildings with a minimum connected load of 100 kW to meet their energy requirements from renewable sources.
As protests by the Opposition continued, Agarwal adjourned the proceedings till 2 pm.
When the house resumed proceedings Trinamool Congress' Sougata Ray raised the issue of a team of West Bengal police allegedly not being allowed to conduct a search operation at a property of a man associated with one of the three Jharkhand MLAs arrested in a cash seizure case despite having a court warrant.
Lok Sabha was again adjourned till 4 pm amid disruption by the opposition parties. After resuming the proceedings , it took up the central universities (Amendment) Bill, 2022, for discussion which was passed later. eom