The absence of seven members, under whose names starred questions were listed, led to the adjournment of the Rajya Sabha five minutes before the scheduled time, drawing the ire of Chairman Venkaiah Naidu on Monday.
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned at 12.55 p.m., five minutes before its scheduled time of 1.00 p.m. The Question Hour is held in the Rajya Sabha between 12.00 p.m. to 1.00 p.m. “I am sorry, I have to make an observation. There were 15 starred questions... but members were absent. After having asked the question they are absent.. It is a sorry state of affairs,” Mr. Naidu said.
All seven members belonged to Opposition parties. “I hope the media will publish the names of those absent, those who are not coming to the House despite putting forward questions,” he said.
Those absent were Dharmapuri Srinivas (TRS), Ravi Prakash Verma (SP), Ronald Sapa Tlau (Congress), M.D. Nadimul Haque (TMC), Dr. Sasikala (AIADMK), Binoy Viswam (CPI) and Pradip Bhattacharya (Congress).
All the 15 starred questions were orally answered twice in the past week.
