The Assembly witnessed unruly scenes on the last day of the session on Friday after a private member resolution to amend the Union Territories Act, 1963, to obtain more powers to the elected government was moved in the House by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Amma faction).
Shortly after AIADMK floor leader A. Anbalagan moved the resolution, R.K.R Anantharaman (Congress) spoke on the need to amend the Act to confer more powers on the elected government. He made a reference to Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi stating that she was acting with the intent to bring bad repute to the elected government which immediately drew angry response from the principal Opposition party, the All India N. R Congress (AINRC).
Ashok Anand (AINRC) said it was inappropriate to blame the Lt. Governor and it was due to her timely intervention that the government-sponsored students were able to get admission in private medical colleges. He then drew the attention of the order issued by the Madras High Court on Friday directing the deemed universities to admit government-sponsored students after collecting ₹l0 lakh as interim fee.
Mr. Anand said the government even did not bother to file a counter in the High Court making its stand clear on the admission issue.
CM refutes charge
As the AINRC member made the statement, Congress members, including Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, were on their feet, countering Mr. Anand.
The Chief Minister said the AINRC member was deliberately misleading the House by making false allegations.
Mr. Narayanasamy said his government had filed an affidavit in the court stating it would abide by whatever decision the judiciary took on the admission issue. He said the affidavit had stated that the government wanted the deemed universities to follow the fee of ₹5.5 lakh fixed by the Fee Committee.
Heated exchanges ensued between treasury benches and AINRC members and in between Mr. Anand went out of the House and came in with a megaphone. He then started speaking on the megaphone as Speaker had directed the Legislative Assembly staff to switch off his podium mike.
Meantime, he along with his colleague N.S.J. Jayabal tried to troop into the well of the House with the megaphone.
Chaos prevail
As the watch and ward were trying to prevent the AINRC members from entering the well, Congress members too came near the Speaker’s podium and entered into an argument.
In the melee, siren of the megaphone went off prompting the Speaker to order confiscation of the megaphone.
Before staging a walkout along with Mr. Jayabal, Mr Anand threw certain Assembly papers to the well of the House.
While leading the walkout, Mr. Anand made certain disrespectful remarks which found strong reaction from Congress members and AIADMK member A. Baskar.
They urged Speaker to suspend the AINRC members. The demand was echoed by the Chief Minister and he went a step further urging Speaker to take appropriate action for violating Assembly rules.
Speaker ordered the suspension of the members from the day’s proceedings and later asked the watch and ward to evict them from the Assembly premises. He said the video footage would be examined and appropriate action would be initiated.
Adjourned sine die
A few hours later after adopting private member Bills, Speaker adjourned the House sine die.
