New Delhi, July 13 (IANS) Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar Friday adjourned the house till 2 p.m. following the protests by Congress MPs from Gujarat, who raised the issue of the illicit liquor tragedy in Ahmedabad which has claimed at least 136 lives so far. The Congress MPs said that since they were not being allowed to raise the issue in the Gujarat assembly, they should be allowed to raise the issue in parliament. “If you are not allowing us to raise the issue here, then where should we go,” the MPs from Gujarat asked the speaker. They tried to approach the speaker’s podium but other Congress members restrained them. Following the protests, the speaker adjourned the house.

Kolkata, July 12 (Inditop.com) Veteran Marxist leader and former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu, who was admitted to hospital here after he fell unconscious Sunday, is stable and making satisfactory progress, hospital authorities said. He is to undergo a CT scan of the brain.

The 96-year-old leader, who was rushed to the AMRI Hospital near his Salt Lake home ‘Indira Bhavan’ Sunday after he became unconscious, is being treated in an Intensive Cardiac Care Unit, hospital officials said.

A seven-member medical board — comprising specialists from cardiology, neurology, gastroenterology, surgery and geriatrics — examined Basu Monday morning and decided to conduct the brain scan.

Basu, who was chief minister for a record 23 years, has a clot in the brain from a fall at his home September last year. The doctors had advised surgery but he did not opt for it.

“The board is satisfied with Basu’s progress. Overall, his condition is stable. All parameters are okay,” hospital medical superintendent Debasish Sharma told IANS.

Basu slept well Sunday night and continued to be on a liquid diet, while his condition was being monitored round-the-clock, he said.

“Basu is suffering from ‘gastro-intestinal distension’ and also had a transient loss of consciousness Sunday morning. His blood pressure was also fluctuating earlier, but now it is normal,” Sharma had said Sunday.

A series of tests, including ECG, ultrasound, x-ray and blood examination, has been conducted on the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader. Basu injured his left leg after another fall at his home May 13. This prevented him from casting his vote in the Lok Sabha polls two months back – the first time in 63 years that he did not vote.

In 2007, after a fall in the bathroom, one of his ribs had cracked.

Born 1914 in Kolkata, Basu became chief minister in 1977. He stepped down voluntarily on health grounds in November 2000.

One of the founding members of the CPI-M, Basu almost became India’s prime minister in 1996 as the head of the United Front government. But the CPI-M vetoed the proposal, forcing him to dub the party’s decision as a “historical blunder”.