DMK member J. Anbazhagan was evicted from the State Assembly on Tuesday for not heeding the Speaker's order to resume his seat and let another member speak.
Speaker D. Jayakumar ordered the marshal to evict him as he continued to be on his feet even after J.C.D. Prabhakar (AIADMK) began his speech on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address.
Earlier, Mr. Anbazhagan's submissions were marked by repeated interventions by Ministers who challenged him on every point and sought to rebut him with clarifications.
When Mr. Anbazhagan demanded to know whether the plan to build one lakh concrete houses in cyclone-hit Cuddalore and Villupuram district was a State or Central scheme, Finance Minister and Leader of the House O. Panneerselvam intervened to assert that it would be a completely State-funded project.
When the DMK MLA disputed the charge in the Governor's address that the previous regime had not added any generating capacity to the State's power scenario and referred to memorandums of understanding it had signed, Electricity Minister Natham R. Viswanathan said that the DMK government had not proceeded beyond signing MoUs. Mr. Anbazhagan wondered what happened to the government's promise to provide uninterrupted power supply, but the Minister said that the State would definitely turn power-surplus by 2013.
His reference to land grab cases evoked vociferous reactions from the treasury benches, and when he asked whether any property had actually been retrieved from the grabbers, Commercial Taxes Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam, who also holds the Law and Courts portfolio, said that property worth Rs.800 crore had been restored to the rightful owners. “Will you release the list of beneficiaries? I challenge you to do it,” Mr. Anbazhagam said. Mr. Panneerselvam cited the example of a judge whose land was registered in another person's name. As the government started booking land grabbers, the offender quietly got the land transferred back to the original owner. This came to light when an encumbrance certificate was applied for.
Participating in the debate, K. Balabharathy (CPI-M) said the people had reposed faith in the ruling party in the local body polls, but were unfortunately ‘rewarded' with increases in bus fare, milk price and power tariff. Transport Minister V. Senthil Balaji justified the bus fare hike.
