Uproar in Rajya Sabha; House adjourns for day

Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Wednesday following uproar over a demand that Home Minister Shivraj Patil should inform the House on the situation in Kolkata.

As the House met after lunch, Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamool Congress) and S S Ahluwalia (Bharatiya Janata Party) raised the issue of alleged police firing in Kolkata on a procession.

They said the home minister should come to the House and make a statement.

This led to uproar prompting Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan to adjourn the House.

Khan's observations that the House would take up the Nandigram issue on Thursday failed to pacify the members who said the situation in the state was grim.

BJP and Trinamool members said the Buddhadeb government in West Bengal should resign for "failing" to protect innocent people in Nandigram.

They said the state government has called in the army to control the situation and the home minister should make a make statement in the House on the issue.

As the members remained unrelenting, the deputy chairman first adjourned the House for half-an-hour and then for the day.