NEW DELHI: The mayhem in the Rajya Sabha over demonetization continued on Monday with angry opposition firm on not letting the House run demanding explanation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi over hardships and trouble caused due to currency ban of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.
Continuing with their stir, the opposition members did not let the House function when it met at 11 am. The House has not been functioning since it started on November 16.
While the deputy chairman P. J. Kurien was firm on continuing with the House proceedings despite opposition’s protest, angry members thronged to the well of the House demanding PM’s explanation on currency ban.
After some 20 odd minutes, the House was adjourned. When it met again at 12 pm, the opposition continued their stir. While Chairman Hamid Ansari called for taking up the Question Hour, opposition members were in no mood to relent.
While senior opposition leaders were shouting from their seats, incidentally, the microphones of opposition leaders were put off and only that of the Chairman and the member raising queries were audible.
While Bhupinder Singh (BJP) raised issues relating to 2G and coal scams, he asked the Congress members to continue the debate on demonetisation.
Naresh Agarwal of Samajawadi Party said the opposition would cooperate in government work but the government has made the entire country disabled as the people were facing problems due to demonetisation.
Referring to non-payemnt of salaries to employees, Rajiv Shukla of Cong said if the situation was not so, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who was in the House, should have refuted it.
Another senior Congress MP Satish Sharma wondered whether the government has become bankrupt as it was not paying salaries to employees. Kurien said the disability bill cannot be passed amid din and adjourned the House for the day, as the noisy protests continued.
The House was adjourned for the day after it again met at 2 pm.