MPs get the message

NEW DELHI, AUG. 24. The decision taken at an all-party meeting convened yesterday by the Speaker, Mr. G. M. C. Balayogi, to penalise members moving to the well had an impact today and a semblance of order was witnessed in the Lok Sabha.

The decision to suspend the unruly members for a week and deprive them of their daily allowance of Rs. 500, endorsed by all political parties, except the Samajwadi Party, appeared to have driven home the message.

During the current session, the House had witnessed, almost on a daily basis, slogan-raising members storming the well and not heeding to the pleas from the presiding officers to return to their seats. Invariably, the House had to be adjourned first for a few hours and, on several occasions, for the day.

Today, question hour went off smoothly and during zero hour, for a change, members raised issues of public importance from their seats. However, at times, heated exchanges were witnessed between the members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance and the Opposition.

Mr. P. C. Thomas of the Kerala Congress asked the Centre to take immediate steps to fix the support price for rubber. Mr. Ramdas Athawale (RPI) demanded a CBI probe into the gunning down of the Samajwadi Party member, Phoolan Devi. He said a month had passed since the murder but the culprits had not yet been nabbed.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal's Mr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh lamented that CARE, a non-governmental organisation carrying out relief work in Bihar, had been summarily asked not to operate in the State at the behest of the Centre and said the NGO should be asked to continue its work.

- PTI

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