Parliament were adjourned

NEW DELHI: Both the houses of the Parliament were adjourned on Tuesday, the second day of the budget session, as the opposition parties cornered the ruling UPA over price rise.

With opposition sticking to its demand, there was an uproar in Lok Sabha with government insisting that the problem of price rise was "more a failure" of the state governments than the Centre.

Meira Kumar adjourned the house till noon after opposition MPs including those from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) demanded that their adjournment motion be accepted and all other businesses of the house postponed to discuss the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities.

The house witnessed noisy scenes soon after the speaker introduced Sushma Swaraj of the BJP as the new Leader of Opposition welcoming her.

"I extend warm welcome to her," she said.

Meira Kumar also thanked former leader of the opposition L.K. Advani for his support in running the house.

Swaraj returned the compliment to the speaker but said she was compelled to move an adjournment motion "because the government has been sleeping over the price rise issue".

"I am sorry but the people are suffering. We want discussion on top priority basis. All the businesses should be delayed. The price rise is the most important issue," Swaraj said.

"Please accept my adjournment motion. We will allow the house to function but price rise should be discussed first."

Other opposition members shouted slogans against the government forcing the speaker to adjourn the house.

Earlier, BJP had insisted on bringing an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha to discuss the issue of price rise as previous debates have yielded no results.

"We want to bring an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha on the burning issue of price rise. Previous debates under Rule 193 (short duration discussion) have yielded no results," party's Deputy Leader in the Lower House Gopinath Munde told reporters here after the Parliamentary Party's meeting this morning.

The BJP had already given a notice for adjournment motion and said the government should not make it an ego issue.

A discussion under an adjournment motion entails voting. Similarly in Rajya Sabha, BJP wanted a debate on price rise under Rule 167 which allows voting.