Vanniyar reservation: PMK walks out after Speaker stopped its MLA from responding to Transport Minister's remarks

CHENNAI: PMK on Wednesday staged a walkout from the state assembly after Speaker M Appavu denied permission to its Dharmapuri legislator SP Venkateshwaran to respond to the Transport Minister SS Sivasankar's remarks on the Vanniyar reservation.

Participating in the debate on the demands for grants for Finance, HRM, Planning, Development and Special Initiatives and Electricity Department at the state assembly here, PMK MLA Venkateshwaran said that there was fear among the people that power tariff would be hiked once again from July 1.

Pointing to the DMK's poll promise of making the electricity bills monthly once from bi-monthly, he said that the state government should implement the promise of monthly electricity bills immediately.

When Venkateshwaran tried to respond to the Transport Minister's Tuesday remarks on Vanniyar reservation within the MBC quota, Speaker Appavu interrupted saying that the member could not respond to it now.

As other PMK members joined Venkateshwaran to allow speaking, the Speaker called the DMK member E Karunanidhi to speak much to their disappointment.

PMK members immediately staged a walkout.