Members of Parliament from the AIADMK were suspended from Lok Sabha, and MPs of both AIADMK and DMK asked to leave the House for a day in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, for disrupting proceedings. This after parliamentarians from both parties rushed to the well of their respective houses to protest against the Centre, for granting permission to Karnataka to submit a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the ambitious multi-purpose Mekedatu project across Cauvery river.
Members of Parliament were first named and suspended in the Rajya Sabha by Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday afternoon. He accused the MPs of shaming the Parliamentary system and demanded that they be removed from the House under rules 255 and 256 for the rest of the day. Naidu's decision came after the MPs continued raising slogans despite the Water resources minister expressing readiness to address their concern regarding the dam.
Amongst the suspended members in the Rajya Sabha were DMK's Kanimozhi and Tiruchi Siva, AIADMK's Navneethakrishnan, V Maitreyan, Vijila Satyanantha and A Vijaykumar.
Similarly in the Lok Sabha, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan named and suspended MPs after they failed 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, stand automatically suspended from the service of the House for five consecutive sittings or the remainder of the session, whichever is less."
Suspended MPs who spoke to the media following their eviction from the House were unperturbed.
"We are against the Centre's decision to allow Karnataka to draft a DPR for the dam. This is against Supreme Court's order on water sharing. The don't have the right to build a dam across the Cauvery. It was wrong for Karnataka to ask and wrong for the Centre to hear this out. We will continue protesting, " said 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 share of water.Tamil Nadu has also disputed Karnataka's claim on the project's purpose, as storing the river water will allow it generate hydel power and thus restrict its flow into its delta region.