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The deadlock in Parliament over coal blocks allocation entered its tenth day on Tuesday with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led opposition sticking to its demand for Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's resignation. As the two Houses met for the day, opposition members trooped into the Well of the House raising slogans against the government and demanded the Prime Minister's resignation on the coal blocks allocation issue. The DMK members also raised slogans and displayed placards asking the Centre to stop training the Sri Lankan Army personnel in India . This led to adjournment of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha earlier till noon. When the Houses re-assembled after the adjournment, there was no change in the atmosphere and the Lok Sabha was adjourned till tomorrow and the Rajya Sabha till 2.00 p.m. The 'Coalgate' has paralysed parliament after the CAG report said that the under-priced sales of coalfields would have cost the national exchequer as much as 33 billion dollars in lost revenues. The BJP is demanding the resignation of Dr. Singh since he headed the Coal Ministry between 2006 and 2009, when many of the sales occurred. However, Dr. Singh had rejected the CAG's observations as 'misleading' and 'flawed', and blamed the opposition parties for thwarting the efforts of his government to bring a policy of competitive bidding. Dr. Singh also ruled out any possibility of quitting the top post despite the BJP firm on its demand for his resignation over the coal blocks allocation issue. Interaction with mediapersons onboard the special plane while returning to New Delhi from Tehran after attending the 16th NAM summit, Dr. Singh said that he can't get into a war of words with political leaders, and added that he has to maintain the dignity of the office of the Prime Minister.

Parliament adjourned over coal blocks allocation