Karunanidhi, Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin and other Ministers replied to the queries raised by legislators.

When PMK member G K Mani said more time should be allotted to MLAs of opposition parties, Speaker R Avudaiyappan said a decision in this regard would taken at the next meeting of the business advisory committee.

Intervening, Karunanidhi said when MLAs of the DMK, the Congress and the PMK walked out of the House in previous regimes, they never raised slogans condemning the Speaker and the Chief Minister. ‘But the situation is not the same now. This may be due to the impact of new friends,’ he said, indirectly hitting out at the PMK’s alliance with the AIADMK.

After Congress MLAs ‘Vidiyal’ Sekar and Vishnuprasad raised a couple of issues and the Chief Minister answered them, PMK legislator Velmurugan posed a question to the government. He wanted to know whether those involved in ‘katta panchayats’ be arrested and an end would be put to the issue which was affecting the people of Panrutti area.

Later, CPI(M) legislator Mahendiran asked whether the Metro Rail project would start from Thiruvottiyur. To this, Stalin said inspection works were currently on and a decision would be taken after consulting with the Chief Minister once the inspection reports were made available to the government.

AIADMK members walk out

AIADMK MLAs walked out of the Assembly today protesting some remarks made by Karunanidhi. When the Chief Minister read a statement under Rule 110 to withdraw a privilege motion against Communist MLAs, he said that the previous AIADMK regime brought such motions against a DMK member and a couple of newspapers.

Protesting this, AIADMK members, led by Deputy Leader of the Opposition O Panneerselvam walked out of the House.