Assembly Speaker P. Dhanapal on Tuesday expressed his displeasure about Congress legislator H. Vasantha Kumar’s conduct, who allegedly told some journalists that he was not being given adequate opportunity to speak in the House.
During the Question Hour, Mr. Vasantha Kumar sought to raise supplementary questions to the starred questions, which was being answered by the Ministers concerned.
When given a chance, the Nanguneri MLA asked questions unrelated to the starred question and was told by Speaker P. Dhanapal to ask relevant query.
In another instance, when Mr. Vasantha Kumar raised another query, which again was not related to the question, before the Speaker could correct him, the Nanguneri MLA said he would engage the Speaker when he raises another question later.
When, for the third time Mr. Vasantha Kumar sought to raise a query, Mr. Dhanapal did not allow him to raise a question and said he would be given a chance later. However, later when the debate on the demand for grants for Commercial Taxes Department was under way, the Speaker suo motu brought up the issue again. “It has come to my notice that despite being given chances to ask questions, Mr. Vasantha Kumar who raised unrelated questions had eventually gone out of the House to claim to journalists that he was not being given a chance to speak.
“His action is nothing but cheap politics. I strongly condemn his action,” the Speaker said.
