Irked Speaker adjourns House for 30 minutes

Mumbai, Mar 16 (UNI) Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Babasaheb Kupekar today adjourned the House for 30 minutes after the question hour when Opposition members wanted to speak on their adjournment notices which had been rejected by the chair.

The issues sought to be raised by members pertained to the fresh outbreak of bird flu in Jalgaon district, gastro-enteritis deaths in South Mumbai, atrocities against a woman in public at Solapur and continuing suicides of farmers, especially in Vidarbha region.

While rejecting the notices, Mr Kupekar said the issues raised were serious in nature and directed the Government to make a statement on the floor of the House.

Members from North Maharashtra wanted the Government to come clear on the situation concerning bird flu in the State. They said the Government had said last month that the flu had not spread out of Navapur in Nandurbar district and there was no need to panic.

MLAs from Mumbai criticised the city's civic administration for not acting on complaints of water contamination. They held the municipal commissioner guilty for it.

Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, who was present in the House, assured the members that the Government would look into the matter as it was serious. ''Neccessary directives would be given to the civic authorities," he said.

However, repeated pleas from members to speak on the issues irked the Speaker who adjourned the House for 30 minutes.

Incidentally, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance are in power in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

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