Ruling Aam Aadmi Party MLAs protested in the Delhi Assembly on Wednesday demanding the suspension of the chief secretary and secretaries of finance and health departments for allegedly ”impeding” works of the Kejriwal government.
Amid the pandemonium, Speaker Ram Niwas Goel adjourned the House proceedings for the day and extended the session till Thursday.
The protest started after MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj presented an interim report of the Assembly’s Petitions Committee which recommended the President and the Union Home ministry ”to take cognisance of this report of the Committee on Petitions and take appropriate action against the Chief Secretary and the Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor”.
It also recommended privilege proceedings to be initiated against Principal Secretary, Finance, AC Verma, Health Secretary Amit Singla and Deputy Secretary, Finance, Manoj Sharma, for allegedly ”misleading” the Committee and ”disrespectful conduct and attempting to conceal information” during its hearing.
Presenting the report on the issue ”sabotaging the functioning of OPD counters in Delhi government hospitals at the behest of the Lt Governor”, Bhardwaj, a member of the committee, said the panel had depositions of the chief secretary, principal finance secretary and health secretary among other officers in past days.
”The chief secretary was summoned by the Committee at 6.30 pm on Tuesday and he was there till 9.30 pm. We asked him about dozens of projects being stuck up, but the chief secretary claimed that he did not have any knowledge of it,” Bhardwaj said.
He claimed that many officers had said they were ”arm-twisted” by the chief secretary ”at the behest of” the lieutenant governor (LG) to ”impede” government works.
Around three dozen works, schemes and projects of various departments were stuck, he claimed and cited non-payment of funds to Delhi Jal Board by the finance department for six months.
He said that payments for salaries and other expenses of Mohalla Clinics and DTC were also obstructed.
”We took confidential depositions of several officers. Many officers said they were threatened by the chief secretary at the behest of the LG to obstruct the functioning of the government,” he said.
Bharadwaj alleged that the chief secretary as well as the finance and health secretaries indulged in a ”conspiracy” to ”impede” the government’s functioning.
As Bhardwaj presented the report, AAP MLAs trooped into the well of the House demanding the suspension of the chief secretary and the finance and health secretaries, prompting the Speaker to first adjourn the proceedings till 4.15 pm.
The protesters refused to relent when the House reconvened, prompting the speaker to adjourn the proceedings for the day.
Earlier, four BJP MLAs were ordered to be marshalled out of the Assembly by Speaker Ram Niwas Goel after the opposition members protested in the House over the issue of pollution in the Yamuna river.
The BJP MLAs demanded a debate over the issue of pollution but the Speaker refused their request.
The MLAs also submitted ”samples” of Yamuna water in two bottles to the Speaker, who threatened to ”terminate the membership of BJP MLAs if the water was found contaminated with acid”.
”The LG has paralysed the House and BJP MLAs should be ashamed of it. BJP MLAs should go to LG and ask him not to gag the House,” Goel told BJP MLAs.
While Ajay Mahawar, Anil Bajpai, Mohan Singh Bisht and OP Sharma were ordered to be marshalled out by Goel, the other BJP MLAs decided to boycott the proceedings of the House in protest.
The AAP has 62 MLAs and the BJP has eight in the 70-member House.
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