By IANS
New Delhi : The Lok Sabha was adjourned for half an hour Wednesday after Trinamool Congress chief and parliamentarian Mamta Banerjee disrupted the proceedings by raising the issue of violence in West Bengal’s Nandigram.
Banerjee, who led a protest march to Jantar Mantar Wednesday morning, came to the Lok Sabha around 12.30 p.m. and wanted to raise the Nandigram issue immediately.
Over 35 people have been killed since January in West Bengal’s Nandigram region, which witnessed violence over a proposed special economic zone (SEZ) the West Bengal government wanted to set up on farmland. The decision, later scrapped, sparked a turf war between the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and a Trinamool Congress-backed group of local villagers.
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee asked another MP to raise a matter under Rule 377. However, Banerjee kept on shouting that some bodies of the people killed have been recovered in Nandigram.
As Banerjee refused to take her seat, the speaker adjourned the house for half an hour at 1 p.m.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi had earlier requested the speaker to cancel the lunch break to take up two important legislations – the Armed Forces Tribunal Bill 2007 and the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill 2007.