Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P. Dhanapal on Monday said he held the right to allow anyone to speak in the House and others could not interfere with it. He said this to DMK members who objected to AIADMK member ‘Mafoi’ K. Pandiarajan responding to a point raised by former Minister and DMK MLA E.V. Velu.
The DMK members argued that the onus was on the Finance Minister to give a proper answer when the debate was on the budget and Mr. Pandiarajan could not be allowed to appropriate the occasion.
However, Mr. Dhanapal said even when the DMK was in power, the Ministers in the Cabinet, Communist leader V. Sivapunniyam, Congress whip Peter Alphonse and other members were allowed to intervene and clarify issues raised by members.
Opposition leader M.K. Stalin said since the DMK members raised a point of order in the present case, the Minister should first give a reply and other members could be allowed to speak subsequently.
When DMK members insisted that Mr. Pandiarajan could not give an answer on behalf of the Finance Minister, Mr. Dhanapal made it clear that it was his prerogative as the Speaker to decide who should speak and who should not.
“If I feel a person should be given a chance, I will allow him. You are unnecessarily creating a problem,” he told the DMK members.
When Mr. Velu wanted to know whether the government had allotted funds for the announcements made by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa under Rule 110 the Assembly rules, Revenue Minister R.B. Udayakumar said adequate allocation had been made for all the schemes.
As far as the widening of the road on Tindivanam-Krishnagiri national highway was concerned, Highways Minister Edappadi K. Palanisamy said the district administration had acquired land and handed over to the National Highways Authority.
