LS Speaker suspends 24 AIADMK members

New Delhi, Jan 2 (IANS) Twenty four Lok Sabha members belonging to AIADMK were on Wednesday suspended for five consecutive sittings by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for their "unruly behaviour" by storming near the podium, tearing papers and throwing them towards the Chair.

The AIADMK members were protesting against the proposal for a dam across Cauvery river in Karnataka.

When the House was to take up a discussion on the Rafale deal in the post lunch session after a few adjournments, the AIADMK members, who have been protesting since the start of the session on the Mekedatu dam issue, trooped near the Speaker's podium and started sloganeering.

Within seconds, some of the protesting members tore some papers and threw these towards the Chair. 

Mahajan warned the members that she will name them. As they did not relent, she then began reading out the names of the members who had disrupted the House session.

"All of them stand suspended for five consecutive sittings of the House," she said and then adjourned the House for the day.

The suspended members are K. Ashok Kumar, R.K. Bharathimohan, M. Chandrakasi, G. Hari, Jayakumar Jayavardhan, K. Parasuraman, K. Kamaraj, P. Kumar, M. Vasanthi, C. Mahendran, K. Maragatham, P. Nagarajan, R. Parthipan, K. R. P. Prabakaran, A. Anwhar Raajhaa, T. Radhakrishnan, S. Rajendran, V. Sathyabama, S. Selvakumarachinnayan, P. R. Sundaram, T.G. Venkatesh Babu, M. Udhayakumar, V. Elumalai and R. Vanaroja.

Later, the suspended AIADMK members took out a procession within the Parliament complex shouting slogans against the government. 

Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai, who belongs to AIADMK, said they have cast no aspersions on the Speaker but have reservations against the NDA government as it had done nothing for Tamil Nadu.