AIADMK Members Evicted for Ruckus in House

Chennai: Members of the opposition AIADMK, along with their leader Edappadi K Palaniswami, were suspended and evicted from the Assembly on Friday after they kicked up a ruckus when Speaker, M Appavu, refused to allow them to raise a complaint against the police department without prior notice, which Chief Minister M K Stalin described as a bid to besmirch the name of the State Government.

When the unruly members tried disrupt the proceedings by raising slogans even as Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanihdi Stalin started his reply to the demands for grants to his department, the Speaker made it clear to the agitated AIADMK members that prior permission was a prerequisite to raise an issue in the House and that they should have informed him about their plans at least half an hour in advance.

But the members persisted with their demand for speaking in the House without advance notice, prompting State PWD Minister E V Velu to inform them that the present Assembly was only following the precedent set by the former Speaker Dhanabal during the AIADMK regime that prior permission was mandatory to speak in the House.

Then, when the AIADMK members caused a pandemonium, the Speaker announced their suspension for lowering the dignity of the House and asked them to be evicted by the watch and ward staff. Even as they were away, the members continued to raise slogans and the Speaker expunged all those that the members spoke during the melee.

Speaking about the unruly scenes, the Chief Minister said general peace prevailed in the State with people living in amity and harmony causing no major disruption to law and order, which in turn attracted industrial investments, new factories and more employment opportunities, putting the State on the path of development.

Unable to bear the amenable situation, some forces inimical to the State and against the interests of the Tamil people were blowing up the random incidents like robberies and murders happening here and there to create panic among the people and planning to also show the police in a bad light, he said. Unfortunately, some media organisations and newspapers were aligned with those forces, he added.

Pointing out that there had been on riots as in the previous AIADMK regime, he said the crime rate had also dropped with the police acting immediately on complaints and sparing no one irrespective of their political affiliation with a view to protecting the people.

When the truth of the matter was that, the leader of the opposition and the leaders of the party with which he was desperate to forge an alliance should refrain from creating needless rumours on the deterioration of law and order in the State to divert the attention of the people, Stalin said.

The efficiency of the police under the present DMK government and the previous regimes of J Jayalalithaa and Palaniswami should be assessed only on the basis of the data on crimes and wrong impression on the law and order situation should not be created based on a few incidents and the reputation of the police and the peaceful State should not be spoiled for the sake of playing politics, he said.

Addressing the media, after his party members' eviction, Palaniswami referred to the killing of a policeman, Muthukumar, in Usilampatti, along with friend, allegedly by a ganja peddler and his gang and said narcotics sale had increased in the State, despite a series of operations named 'Ganja 1.0. 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0' launched by the government.