lok Sabha adjourned till Tuesday over Telangana

The lok Sabha was Monday repeatedly disrupted and finally adjourned till Tuesday after Speaker Meira Kumar suspended nine members from the house for five days for obstructing proceedings over the decision to create a separate Telangana state from Andhra Pradesh.

The speaker named the nine MPs -- four from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and five from the Congress -- under rule 374(A) of parliamentary proceedings, which automatically suspends them for the next five sittings of the house. Of the nine MPs, Nimalla Kristappa, Modugula Venugopala Reddy, Konakalla Narayan Rao and Nirmalalli Sivaprasad are from the TDP, while Savarshri A. Sai Prathap, Anantha Venkatrami Reddy, l. Raja Gopal, Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy and Bapi Raju Kanumuru belong to the Congress.

The members were protesting against the decision to create Telangana from Andhra Pradesh. As soon as the house assembled at 11 a.m., the members started shouting slogans demanding a united Andhra Pradesh. They refused to be quiet despite repeated requests by the speaker. The TDP members wore masks of late prime minister Indira Gandhi, irking the treasury benches.

The TDP members also hurled "filthy abuses" in Telugu at the Congress, which angered the Congress leaders when it was pointed out by its Andhra MPs.

 Congress chief whip Sandeep Dikshit then challenged the TDP members. Following this, the speaker said: "...You may forthwith withdraw from the precincts of the house."

Meira Kumar then adjourned the house till 2 p.m. but the four TDP members stayed inside the house in protest. When the house reconvened, Deputy Speaker Kariya Munda, who was in chair, requested the four TDP members to withdraw from the house even as the left parties raised the issue of hike in petrol prices.

The BJP demanded action against the suspended TDP members. Amid chaos, the house was then adjourned till Tuesday. The nine Andhra Pradesh MPs were among the 12 suspended Aug 23 on the same issue. The ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition, led by the Congress, has approved carving out a separate Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh.