LS Speaker says raising question on chair not good, no supplementary after question hour

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday said that raising question on the chair was not good and supplementary question cannot be allowed to be asked after question hour has ended.

He made the remarks a day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said outside the House that he was not allowed to ask a supplementary question.

The Speaker, who has been pressing for short questions and short answers by ministers during question hour, referred to the House having spent nearly 20 minutes on a question related to the fishing sector.

As union minister Giriraj Singh was replying to a query, Congress member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury interrupted him and said there was a blue revolution when Indira Gandhi was prime minister.

Singh said Chowdhury has developed a habit of standing every time and urged him to develop a habit of listening. The minister said Rs 50000 crore will be invested in the fishing sector in the next five years in accordance with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Speaker said supplementary question cannot be allowed after 12.

"You tell me, if you take 15-20 minutes on a question then your member will raise a question that supplementary question was not allowed to be asked after 20 minutes. This is not good for the House. The Question Hour ends at 12. After that supplementary is not allowed. Then raise a question on the chair, this is not right," he said.

Gandhi had asked a supplementary in the House on Monday to his question about 50 top wilful defaulters. By the time Minister of State for Finance Anurag finished his reply, the question hour ended.

Members of Congress, DMK, NCP and some other parties had staged a walkout after the minister's reply.