With Friday too being no different as Parliament continued to be marred by protests and adjournments for the fifth consecutive day, the first week of the post-recess Budget Session has been a complete washout.

Agitated members vociferously raised issues including Punjab National Bank(PNB) scam, granting special status to Andhra Pradesh and constitution of Cauvery Management Board and did not allow both the houses to function.

In the second leg of the Budget Session, the Finance Bill 2018 and Demands for Grants are slated to be passed. Unabated agitation by the members forced Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to remark “one week has gone waste. This is no good. This is sad,” before he adjourned the proceedings.

Ashok Gajapati Raju (TDP), who had resigned on Thursday as civil aviation minister along with Y S Chowdary to mark his party’s protest on the issue of special status to Andhra Pradesh, was seen standing in the well of the Lok Sabha with his party colleagues. Like others, he too was wearing a stole depicting his party’s colour.

While Congress and Trinamool Congress were protesting against the government over the Rs 12,700 crore PNB fraud, Andhra Pradesh parties–TDP and YSR Congress – continued to press for special status to be granted to the State. AIADMK was demanding setting up of the Cauvery Board to settle water disputes with neighbouring States.

When the Lok Sabha met for the day, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan welcomed a parliamentary delegation from South Korea. Tributes were also paid to former members Prabodh Panda, Shyama Singh and Bhanu Kumar Shastri who died recently. Soon after, the members from various parties trooped into the Well holding placards. Amid the din, the Speaker first adjourned the House till noon and thereafter for the entire day.

Similar scenes were witnessed in the Rajya Sabha where the proceedings were disrupted as members of several parties stormed the Well over various issues. After observing that one week was wasted due to agitations, Naidu did not wait long enough and adjourned the proceedings till 1430 hours. The House was finally adjourned for the day shortly after it met again due to unrelenting din by members.

However, before the first adjournment, Naidu announced the nomination of JD(U) member Kahkashan Parveen on the panel of presiding officers to conduct the proceedings of the House, making her the first woman to be included in the panel in the recent times. This move came a day after the International Women’s Day when the members had expressed concern that there was no woman member in this panel, which was agreed to by the Chairman. She will assume the new role from April 3 after another member Basvaraj Patil’s term comes to an end on April 2.

According to the Upper House rules, the Chairman nominates from amongst the members up to six vice-chairpersons or presiding officers who preside in the absence of the chairman and the deputy chairman. At present besides Naidu and P J Kurien as Deputy Chairman , the panel includes Satyanarayan Jatiya(BJP), Tiruchi Siva (DMK), T K Rangarajan (CPI-M), Bhubaneswar Kalita (Congress), Basawaraj Patil (BJP) and Sukhendu Sekhar Ray (Trinamool Congress).

When senior Congress member Viplove Thakur, who had demanded the inclusion of a woman in the presiding officer’s panel on Thursday, rose to thank him, Naidu, in a lighter vein, said he wanted to nominate Thakur, but she would have lost her voice in the panel. “Viplove, in our language, means revolution,” he said. Naidu’s native language is Telugu.