Following Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s intervention, Speaker P Dhanapal on Wednesday announced that the main opposition party, the DMDK, would be allowed to initiate discussions on the demands for grants for various departments as was the practice earlier.
A few days ago, the Speaker had ruled that the DMDK members would be allowed to speak after all other parties had spoken as they had been making false statements in the media that they were not given due opportunity and time in the House proceedings despite having been given ample time.
During the Zero Hour, the leaders of CPI, CPM and Congress urged the Speaker to reconsider his decision with regard to the DMDK members. The Chief Minister also said though the conduct of DMDK MLAs went against the norms of the House, the Speaker should reconsider his decision considering the fact that democratic norms should be safeguarded.
Following this, the Speaker announced that the DMDK MLAs would be allowed to initiate the discussions and advised them to use this opportunity and cooperate with him in conducting the proceedings in a smooth manner. He also warned that if the DMDK members continued to disrupt the proceedings, he would have to take severe action against them.