Parliament takes a break till April 24

New Delhi, March 30 (IANS) Both houses of parliament were Friday adjourned till April 24 for the customary break in the budget session.

While the Lok Sabha ended with the issue of separate statehood of Telangana paralysing the house for the fifth consecutive day, the Rajya Sabha was peaceful, bidding farewell to retiring members and getting adjourned due to lack of enough members on the last day before the parliament takes a break.

In the Lok Sabha, trouble over Telangana and the central government's "insensitivity" to the demand erupted as soon as the house convened at 11 a.m. MPs from the Congress, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) shouted slogans of "Jai Telangana", urging Speaker Meira Kumar to adjourn the house.

The dragging demand for a separate state to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh has seen at least two people committing suicide in the last few days. According to MPs from the region, there have been nearly 600 suicides so far.

The MPs alleged that the central government was insensitive towards their demand which had driven people to end their lives.

The protests continued when the house reassembled at noon, when papers were laid and other proceedings taken up amidst the sloganeering.

The house was later adjourned for the break.

It was quiet in the Rajya Sabha though with routine business in the first half of the day and members bidding farewell to retiring members.

When the upper house met after lunch for private-members' business, it was short of members.

Members were missing on both sides. Amongst those present were ministers Salman Khurshid, Mukul Wasnik, V. Narayanasamy and Sachin Pilot.

Janata Dal-United leader Shivanand Tiwari and Bharatiya Janata Party's Prakash Javadekar, who had private members' business listed, were seen eagerly counting heads.

The quorum bell rang for 10 minutes, but enough members could not be present and the house was adjourned till April 24.

Quorum is one-tenth of the total number of members in the house, 25 in the case of Rajya Sabha presently.