Sloganeering against Speaker ''unfortunate'': Minister

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 11 (UNI) Kerala Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Vijayakumar today said it was unfortunate on the part of the Congress-led Opposition to raise slogans against the Assembly Speaker at the Floor of the House and denying the Speaker's ruling, which were against parliamentary precedence.

Addressing newspersons here, he said the Opposition, United Democratic Front (UDF) was stalling the proceedings when the House had been specially convened for drafting important legislations.

The Opposition did not allow the commencement of the business after the Assembly was convened on September four, he said and added they were purposely doing this by seeking adjournment motions on issues which had no urgency.

Adjournment motions were allowed on relevant issues and the notice on Kiliroor sex scandal today, had no urgency, he said and added the issue had been there when the Assembly started its session.

Even when the Opposition gave a notice to the Speaker on an adjournment motion on the Kiliroor issue, the speaker had told them it could not be taken up even as a submission. ''In the last Assembly session itself, the Speaker had ruled that personal allegations could not be raised in the House. And as such the Speaker denied the Opposition's demand today,'' he said.

The Opposition had questioned the ruling of the Speaker, which was not a parliamentary precedence, he added.

The ISRO Land deals were raised at the beginning of the session and they had come up with the Kiliroor issue now as they had no other issues. ''I doubt if the Opposition was stalling the proceedings for preventing the Chief Minister from making a statement on the ISRO land deals,'' Mr Vijayakumar said.

The Chief Minister was to make a statement in the House today.

''The Opposition is more alarmed in the ISRO land deal,'' he said and alleged that former Revenue Minister and Kerala Congress (M) leader K M Mani was the first accused and UDF, the second accused.

He also alleged that illegal transactions had taken place after the 2003 Act implemented out by the previous UDF Government regarding Forest land. Stating that the Land deals involved various legal tangles, he said all issues regarding the deal would be looked into.

UNI