Rajya Sabha adjourned till 2 p.m amid Oppn uproar over fuel price hike

New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) The proceedings of the Rajya Sabha were adjourned till 2 p.m on Tuesday amid Opposition's uproar over the fuel price hike.

This was the second adjournment as the House was earlier adjourned till 12 p.m shortly after it assembled.

Soon after the first adjournment, when the House re-assembled at 12 p.m. for the Question Hour, the Opposition Members started raising slogans to press their demand for a discussion on the fuel price hike under rule 267 which was rejected by Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu.

Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh, who was on the chair, tried to pacify the agitating Opposition Members asking them to resume their seats and allow the House to proceed with the Question Hour.

"The Question Hour is very important and many Members have questions regarding their constituencies. This is the Upper House. You are not behaving as the tradition of this House, Please go back to your seats and let the House run," Harivansh said.

Earlier, the House witnessed an adjournment till 12 p.m following a pandemonium over the same issue and Opposition's demand that the issue be discussed during Zero Hour.

When the House met at 11 a.m, Chairman Naidu said that the notice under rule 267 given by Opposition MPs, including Congress MP Shaktisinh Gohil and Dola Sen of TMC, against fuel price hike have been rejected.

At this, the Opposition Members started raising slogans and displayed placards to press their demand. Some of them rushed into the well but an unfazed Naidu, without paying any heed to them tried to start the Zero Hour.

But when the protests did not seem to abate, he adjourned the House till 12 p.m.

Notably, last 12 consecutive full sittings of the Upper House had passed without any forced adjournments but on Tuesday, it had to be adjourned twice till now.

The last eight full sittings of the first part of this Budget session and the first four sittings of the ongoing second part of this session did not witnessed any such forced adjournments.