AAP members to target Jung, police in stormy session

A stormy Budget session of the Delhi Assembly is in store from Tuesday as the AAP members will look to target Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung over sharing of power with the chief minister and train guns on police over recent cases against ruling party legislators.

The opposition BJP will try to embarrass the government by raising the issue of the arrest of  ex-minister Jitender Tomar over allegedly forged academic documents. Allegation of domestic violence against AAP leader Somnath Bharti may also give ammunition to the Opposition.
The issue of the recent power hike may also figure prominently in the House during the six-day session that would see treasury benches raising issue related to Jung and the central government to deflect attention from Tomar’s arrest and the recent sanitation workers’ and doctors’ agitation.

For the first time, there would be no Question Hour for the first four days of the House sitting. Speaker Ram Niwas Goel told reporters on Monday that the last two days of the session have been kept for the purpose.

“Questions can be asked on June 29 and 30. About 67 questions have been received in the Assembly Secretariat for these two days,” said Goel, who admitted that there was a delay in issuing the notification of Budget session due to which there was lack of time to hold question hour.

Earlier, one hour on each day of the session was dedicated to Question Hour.
“The Budget proposal went to central government which took some time and its notification was received by Assembly on June 17, so we had insufficient time to allot time for starred question. But we have allotted two days in which we have got a list of 67 questions from the MLAs,” he said.

During the session, the strength of the treasury benches will also go down to 65 for the first time since the new Assembly was constituted in February.

A controversial bill on government’s attempt to control and monitor private schools’ fees may also be brought in the Assembly as proposed earlier despite the Bill not figuring in the list of official agenda released by the Speaker.

According to Goel, the government Bills received by the Secretariat and these include the Netaji Subhash Information Technology Bill, 2015,  the Delhi Legislative Assembly Members (prevention of Disqualification) (Amendment) Bill, 2015, the Delhi Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2015, the  Delhi Appropriation (No. 2) Bill, 2015 and the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement (Amendment) Bill, 2015.

The economic survey will be tabled on June 24 and on June 25 the Budget would be tabled. The budget will be discussed over the next few days and passed, he added. In March, the Delhi government presented a vote-on-account in the Assembly for April to June to run their several financial schemes.

Three private member’s bills are also expected to be brought in the House during the session. BJP member Jagdish Pradhan’s private member’s Bill will talk about providing basic facilities the unauthorised colonies and their regularisation.

AAP member Sanjeev Jha has moved Bill demanding that the Delhi government should get greater say in land related matters and the Delhi Development Authority, which is the prime land-owning agency in the city, should be transferred to the city government.

Jarnail Singh, AAP MLA from Rajouri Garden, has proposed Bill which says that in view of the possibilities of imposition of Emergency in the country the central government should take steps for strengthening the federal structure. Leader of Oppostion Vijender Gupta of the BJP has condemned the Kejriwal government for dropping the Question Hour from the business of the first four days.