Thiruvananthapuram: A former Kerala State Road Transport Corporation employee Wednesday created a flutter in the Assembly by raising slogans from the visitors’ gallery and was detained as punishment till adjournment of the House.
The incident happened during the question hour when retired bus conductor Satheesh stood up and asked members to consider the pension issue of retired employees of KSRTC.
The Watch and Ward staff immediately whisked him away. Deputy Speaker N Sakthan, who was in the chair, requested security officials not to rough him up.
CPI-M veteran and Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan said the person took the extreme step due to his unfortunate situation.
Later as per a decision at a meeting of party leaders, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy moved a resolution in the House to detain him till the House adjourned, which was passed unanimously by the House.
Punishment was on charges of infringement on the rights of the Assembly, Sakthan said. This kind of undemocratic methods cannot be tolerated and this is the first such incident happened after 1995, Sakthan pointed out.
Payment of pension for retired employees of KSRTC was in arrears for last few months due to financial crisis faced by the corporation.