Yogi Adityanath and SP leader Azam Khan on their way to attend the State Assembly Winter Session (PTI)
For the second consecutive day, the Question Hour was derailed in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly amid strident criticism by the opposition Samajwadi Party of the recent power tariff hike in the state.
As soon as the House met for the day, Leader of the Opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary raised the issue and wanted an immediate roll back, saying the hike had burdened every section of society.
Mr Chaudhary was soon supported by other opposition members leading to a din in the House.
Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit urged the agitated members to allow him to take up the day's listed business first and raise their issues during Zero Hour.
They, however, did not relent and started raising slogans and soon trooped into the well of the House.
The Speaker urged them to take their seats, but his request went unheeded.
Mr Chaudhary wanted the Chair to take up the matter first as the decision had hit the common people badly.
Mr Dixit then adjourned the House for 15 minutes, but it was extended by another 15 minutes and then till Zero Hour.
In the din, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna was heard taunting the opposition SP, saying the UP electorate had rejected them in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, 2017 Assembly elections and now in the civic body polls.
"They have nothing constructive to do but to raise non- issues in the House," he said, provoking SP benches.
Power Minister Shrikant Sharma, however, justified the hike and dubbed the SP members as "anti-development, anti- people".
"During the SP regime, there used to be no electricity supply," he said.
The Winter session of the UP Legislature got off to a stormy start yesterday with the opposition disrupting proceedings on power tariff and law and order issues, leading to adjournment of both the Assembly and the Council for the day.
The UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) recently hiked power tariff.
While the average hike for domestic consumers is 12 per cent, for urban domestic electricity consumers it has been raised by 9 per cent. For metered rural domestic consumers, the tariff has been hiked to Rs 3 per unit for first 100 units and Rs 4.50 per unit beyond that.