Chennai: The opposition DMK made a vain bid to raise an issue on Governor's review meetings in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday and later staged a walk out over the issue.
Referring to the clarification issued by the Raj Bhavan on review meetings, Leader of the Opposition M.K. Stalin, sought to know if senior officials were informed about the Governor's visits beforehand.
Assembly Speaker P. Dhanapal, however, declined to allow a debate on the Governor in the House. He said he had permitted Stalin to raise the issue but a debate on issues concerning the Governor cannot be allowed as the constitutional authority is entitled to go on tours in the state, he added.
When Mr Stalin demanded a reply from the government, the Speaker remained firm saying there could not be further discussion on the subject. This prompted Stalin to take exception to the Chief Minister not replying and announced a walkout and left the House accompanied by party colleagues. Later, DMK's ally Congress legislators also walked out.
This is the second time that the DMK had attempted to raise the issue. On Monday, the party unsuccessfully attempted to coerce a reply from the government but the Speaker disallowed the debate on the Governor.
On Tuesday, the Raj Bhavan, citing legal opinion saying there was no illegality in the Governor's actions, had clarified on the issue. On Sunday, following the DMK's protest of laying siege to the Raj Bhavan, the Governor's office had issued a stern warning to DMK for announcing protests against Mr Purohit's district visits.
As the Assembly was settling down to take up the next agenda, Handlooms Minister O.S. Manian got up to make a statement. However, Mr. Dhanapal intervened saying "the issue is already settled. There need not be further discussion."
As Mr Manian insisted, Leader of the House and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam appealed to the Treasury Benches to honour the Chair and not indulge in discussion on the Governor.
