New Delhi: Even as Parliament witnessed pitched battle in hard prose between the BJP government and the combined opposition over the Rafale issue on Wednesday, the 24 MPs from the AIADMK were suspended from Lok Sabha, and MPs of both AIADMK and DMK were ordered to leave the House for a day in Rajya Sabha for disrupting proceedings over the Mekedatu project across the Cauvery river.
The MPs from both the TN parties rushed to the well of their Houses to protest against the Centre for granting permission to Karnataka to submit a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for its Mekedatu project aimed at storing the Cauvery water for power generation. While Karnataka maintains that the project would save the river water from going waste into the sea while helping irrigation in Tamil Nadu and power generation by Karnataka, the TN leaders have been opposing it stoutly alleging that the dam was aimed at only increasing the consumption of the Cauvery water by Karnataka for irrigation in increased acreage and also for providing drinking water for Bengaluru.
In Rajya Sabha, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu first named and suspended the MPs of AIADMK and DMK in the afternoon, accusing them of shaming the Parliamentary system and ordering that they be removed from the House under rules 255 and 256 for for the rest of the day.
His order came after the MPs continued to raise slogans despite the Water Resources Minister expressing readiness to address their concern regarding Mekedatu.
Amongst those suspended were the AIADMK's Navaneethakrishnan, Dr V Maitreyan, A Vijaykumar and Vijila Satyanantha, and the DMK's Kanimozhi and Tiruchi Siva.
In Lok Sabha too, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan named and suspended the AIADMK MPs after they refused to heed to her warning for maintenance of decorum in the House. They were suspended under Rule 374(A) of the House, which says, "Notwithstanding anything contained in Rules 373 and 374, in the event of grave disorder occasioned by a member coming into the well of the House or abusing the Rules of the House, persistently and willfully obstructing its business by shouting slogans or otherwise, such member shall, on being named by the Speaker, stands automatically suspended from the service of the House for five consecutive sittings or the remainder of the session, whichever is less."
However, the suspended MPs appeared unperturbed when addressing the media after their eviction from the House. "We strongly oppose the Centre's approval to Karnataka drafting a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the dam. This is against Supreme Court's order on sharing of Cauvery water. Karnataka has no right to build dam across Cauvery. It was wrong for Karnataka to ask for it and wrong for the Centre to hear this out. We will continue to protest", said AIADMK MP A Navaneethakrishnan.
The Tamil Nadu government has already petitioned the Centre and the Supreme Court to stop Karnataka building the balancing reservoir fearing denial of its (TN) share of water.
