Parliament adjourns after paying condolences

The Parliament adjourned for the day on the opening day of the monsoon session after paying tributes to former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and two sitting members who died during the inter-session period on Monday.

Both Houses paid tributes to Digvijay Singh who was a sitting member of Lok Sabha as also a former member of Rajya Sabha.

While Lok Sabha also condoled the death of former member Ram Sagar, the Rajya Sabha mourned the demise of sitting member Virendra Bhatia and former member K A Krishnaswamy.

Members in the Lok Sabha also paid homage to Kargil war heroes who fought valiantly to evict Pakistani soldiers from icy heights.

The 11th anniversary of the Indian victory in the Kargil war falls on Monday.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari also remembered the victims of the naxal attacks on Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Chattisgarh.

"The House strongly condemns these dastardly attacks which are aimed at disturbing peace and creating chaos in the country," Kumar said.

In the Rajya Sabha, Ansari said the House strongly condemns the "barbaric" attacks and said these should be tackled with determination.

Both the Houses condoled the deaths in the Mangalore air crash, Jnaneshwari Express accident in West Midnapore and in the collision of Uttarbanga Express and Vananchal Express at Sainthia in Birbhum district of West Bengal.

Kumar as well as Ansari paid glowing tributes to Shekhawat, whom they remembered as a "sagacious statesman, a distinguished legislator and a committed votary of humanitarian values."

Shekhawat, who was chief minister of Rajasthan three times, passed away on May 15 at Jaipur.

Digvijay Singh, a sitting Independent member from Banka in Bihar, breathed his last on June 24 in London.

Ram Sagar, who represented Saidpur constituency in Uttar Pradesh in the sixth and ninth Lok Sabha, passed away on July 12 at Varanasi.