Seven MLAs of the Opposition BJP were on Friday (February 16) suspended from the Delhi Assembly for the remainder of the Budget Session for allegedly interrupting the Lt Governor’s address. The MLAs on Thursday had interrupted LG VK Saxena’s address multiple times as they sought to attack the Arvind Kejriwal government. Assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel had referred the matter of disruption to the Privileges Committee after AAP MLA Dilip Pandey moved a resolution in the House seeking action on the issue.
What did the AAP allege?
Pandey said that opposition members on Thursday acted in a "planned manner" while disrupting the LG's address which lowered the prestige of the House.
"It was unprecedented and unfortunate," he said.
He read out the rule book and said that the behaviour of the Opposition members has lowered the dignity of the House and also demanded action.
The Speaker, while accepting Pandey’s resolution, said that the matter was to be sent to the Privileges Committee. Seven members of the BJP barring Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri be suspended from the proceedings of the House till the report is pending.
He later asked the seven members -Mohan Singh Bisht, Ajay Mahawar, OP Sharma, Abhay Verma, Anil Vajpayi, Jitender Mahajan and Vijender Gupta-- to leave the chamber of the House.
Leader of Opposition Bidhuri also walked out of the House in protest.
What happened during LG’s address?
The BJP MLAs repeatedly interrupted LG Saxena’s address on Thursday forcing the Speaker to ask the marshals to escort them out of the House.
Seven out of the eight BJP MLAs in the House, barring Leader of Opposition Bidhuri, were marshalled out by the Speaker for interrupting the LG's address on the first day of the session, Assembly officials had said.
As soon as Saxena started reading out his speech and cited achievements of the government in the field of education, BJP MLA Gupta interrupted him raising the issue of funding of 12 colleges of the Delhi University.
Other BJP MLAs alleged shortage of water, non-implementation of Ayushman Bharat scheme, poor condition of hospitals, electricity rates, with the LG continuing and concluding his address amid multiple interruptions.
The Budget session of the Delhi Assembly has been extended till the first week of March due to delay in budget finalisation.
(With PTI inputs)
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