Parliament adjourns twice over fuel price hike

The entire opposition today got together and disrupted proceedings in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha over the government's decision to raise prices of petrol and diesel, forcing two adjournments till 2 PM.

Trouble started soon after the two Houses met for the day after a four-day break, with the opposition members demanding rollback of the price increase announced in the general Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on February 26.

The Opposition benches shouted slogans demanding rollback of the Rs 2.71 a litre hike in petrol price and Rs 2.55 per litre increase in diesel rates.

In the Lok Sabha, members of NDA, SP and RJD trooped into the Well to press their demand

In view of the uproar, both the Houses were first adjourned till 1200 hours soon after they met. Similar scenes were seen when the Houses re-convened at noon, leading to their adjournments till 2 PM.

In the Rajya Sabha, the opposition members took exception to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assertion while returning from Saudi Arabia on Monday that there will be no rollback, contending that it was a breach of privilege as he had made the statement outside Parliament though the House was in session.

"Instead of answering in the House, the Prime Minister chose mid-air to reject the demand (about rollback) made by the nation," Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley said.

He was supported by Left members, with CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat saying the Prime Minister's statement had created a "lot of confusion".

Post new comment

E-mail ID will not be published
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Copy the characters (respecting upper/lower case) from the image.

FC NEWSLETTER

Stay informed on our latest news!

EDITORIAL OF THE DAY

  • Retail investors need to be drawn to bond trading

    A country requires both a healthy capital market and a liquid debt market for vibrant economic growth. India has had the first for a long time.

INTERVIEWS

GV Nageswara Rao

MD & CEO, IDBI Federal Life

Timothy Moe

Goldman Sachs

Chander Mohan Sethi

CMD, Reckitt Benckiser India

COLUMNIST

Urs Schöttli

Japan’s living national treasures

While the world is fascinated by the economic “miracles” in ...

Robert Clements

Cherish good times and accept bad ones

Initially, I was angry and confused, I was even repentant…,” ...

Bubbles Sabharwal

Mothers just see things differently; they can’t help it

Before we begin on mothers, I have to share this ...