Rajya Sabha adjourned for lack of quorum

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day due to lack of quorum during the post-lunch sitting after two disruptions in the morning on a variety of demands, including Prime Minister`s resignation over alleged scam in coal block allocation. The House was to meet at 2:30 PM to take up Private Members` Bills, but hardly 15 members were present with no representation from the Opposition NDA and Left.

Though Thaawar Chand Gehlot (BJP) came in the House, he went out after telling the Secretary General that he got delayed as he had gone for lunch. There were only four members from Congress including two Ministers. Since the requirement of at least 10 per cent attendance of the total members of the House could not be met, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien did not come in the House. For quorum, the presence of 25 members is needed in the 245-member House. Secretary General Shumsher K Sheriff waited for 10 minutes for quorum to be complete before finally announcing that the House stood adjourned till Monday. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla and Minister of State for Home RPN Singh, who were present in the House, walked up to Sheriff and discussed the problem. DMK member T Siva was seen counting the total numbers of MPs present in the House. At 2.30 PM, only 15 members were present in the House, which rose to 19 by the time the House was adjourned. PTI