AIADMK Walks Out of Assembly After Speaker Defers Its Notice; Palaniswami Slams Government Over Mayiladuthurai Fisherman's Killing

The opposition AIADMK staged a walkout from the Tamil Nadu Assembly on August 19 after Speaker JCD Prabhakar ruled that an issue for which the party had given notice would be taken up only the following day, Thursday.

The disruption came during Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay's announcements on the MLA vehicle-and-allowance package, the health insurance cover hike and the milk procurement price increase, when AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami asked the Speaker to take up the matter his party had flagged.

Speaking to reporters outside the Assembly after the walkout, Palaniswami launched a sharp attack on the TVK government over its handling of the killing of a fisherman from Mayiladuthurai, who he said was shot dead by pirates while at sea off Saudi Arabia, with three others injured and undergoing treatment.

Palaniswami alleged that the opposition had raised the issue in the House on five consecutive days without receiving a concrete response from the government, and accused the administration of inaction on the matter.