NEW DELHI, 20 November 2007 — Winter session of India’s Parliament began yesterday on a stormy note, with both houses adjourned for the day without transacting any major business after the opposition disrupted proceedings over the violence in West Bengal’s Nandigram area.

As the Lok Sabha (lower house) met, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) members of Parliament (MPs) asked for the suspension of question hour to discuss the violence in Nandigram.

The region has seen violence since January over a proposed special economic zone the West Bengal government wanted to set up on farmland. The decision, later scrapped, sparked a turf war between the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and a Trinamool Congress-backed group.

A total of 34 people have been killed since January in Nandigram, according to official figures. But the opposition maintains that many more people have died and that CPM activists have chased away many more from there.

Parliament Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said the question hour should be allowed and the matter could be raised at noon. However, the opposition did not relent. CPM MPs stood up shouting: “What happened in Gujarat?”

Unable to control the members, Somnath adjourned the house at 11.10 a.m. The Rajya Sabha (upper house) was also adjourned due to similar pandemonium over Nandigram.

Both houses met again at 12 p.m. but were adjourned again after the papers listed in the business were laid.

In the lower house, BJP MPs did not allow Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi to announce this week’s business. “We want to discuss Nandigram,” shouted BJP leader V.K. Malhotra.

As the opposition appeared determined not to allow any other business, Somnath adjourned the proceedings for the day.

However, Somnath expressed condolences over the loss of lives in Bangladesh due to cyclone Sidr.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee also announced that New Delhi was sending relief material to Bangladesh.

Court Dismisses Petition

Meanwhile, The Supreme Court yesterday refused to entertain a petition seeking its intervention in Nandigram. A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan refused to entertain the petition saying it cannot issue direction to the central government to act in accordance with West Bengal Gov. Gopal Krishna Gandhi’s report on the situation there or direct it to impose president’s rule in the state.

The bench dismissed the petition by Kedarnath Yadav as it had also partly lost its relevance. The petition had been filed over three months back.

As the matter came up for hearing, the chief justice told the petitioner that the state governor has already sent his report to the government.