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Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Tuesday ordered an inquiry into the MPs' bribery scam as exposed by a television news channel, and asked the five members allegedly involved not to attend the House till their names were cleared.
The members against whom the inquiry has been instituted are Alemao Churchill (Congress), Faggan Singh Kulaste (BJP), Ram Swaroop Koli (BJP), Chandra Pratap Singh (BJP) and Parasnath Yadav (SP).
As soon as the House assembled for the day, the speaker expressed grave concern over the improper conduct of the five members in the implementation of the Local Area Development scheme even as the members of the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal demanded scrapping of the scheme.
Chatterjee said it was a matter of shame that this had happened while an inquiry was already on to look into the bribe-for-questions scandal.
Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat referred the issue to the Ethics Committee even as several members sought scrapping of the scheme.
In his observations, Shekhawat said two members of the Upper House had been named in the expose and what the private TV channel showed had lowered prestige of the House.
"Without any doubt, it is a matter of concern," he said.