The parliamentary standing committee for home affairs meeting to discuss the recent floods in Tamil Nadu ended in protest after Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi left the meeting halfway, even as the issue was being discussed by members of Parliament.
Sources present at the meeting told The Hindu that the meeting was to hear presentations from the Union Home Ministry and State government officials on the extent of the damage wrought by the floods, but the meeting remained inconclusive due to the departure of Mr. Mehrishi.
“The presentation by the Ministry detailed that the loss of lives in the floods in the State was pegged at 470, with damage to over 2.7 lakh homes and nearly 3 lakh hectares of crop land. Scarcely had these figures been shared when the home secretary was called away,” said a senior MP present at the meeting.
The departure prompted protests from “almost every MP who is a member of the committee as the standing committee is considered a mini-Parliament and its proceedings should not be disrupted in this way.”
The meeting ended early for this reason and MPs have decided to take up the matter in their next meeting for which a date has not been decided. Chairman of the committee P Bhattacharya of the Congress confirmed to The Hindu that the meeting “was inconclusive” and that “we will take this up again when we meet next.”
