AAP rebel Mishra marshalled out of Assembly

NEW DELHI: On the second day of the ongoing session of the Delhi assembly on Tuesday, suspended AAP legislator Kapil Mishra was marshalled out after he held up a poster with an image of AAP's Rajya Sabha MP-elect Sushil Gupta holding a snake with Kejriwal's face photo-shopped on it. Speaker Ram Niwas Goel objected to it and ordered him to be marshalled out.

Goel also ordered to marshal out BJP MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa after he reportedly tried to 'obstruct' the Assembly staff taking the suspended AAP leader out of the House and the issue was referred to the Privilege Committee of the House.

Sirsa sprang to Mishra's defence even as the marshals were taking the suspended AAP leader out. This drew Goyal's ire who ordered that the BJP legislator be taken out as well. "I am forwarding the matter of Sirsa trying to obstruct the marshals to the Privilege Committee of the House," Goel said. Sirsa told reporters outside the House that he was not blocking the marshals but merely asking Mishra to go out.

Earlier, Mishra alleged that AAP had 'sold' its Rajya Sabha seats and demanded a discussion on the matter in the House.

The three-day session began on a stormy note on Monday as the AAP and BJP MLAs traded barbs and indulged in sloganeering over the sealing drive, leading to four adjournments in two hours and the marshalling out of two opposition legislators. Later during the proceeding, the speaker told the House that a special committee of the assembly will look into a sealing drive currently on in the city and allegations of corruption by BJP-led municipal corporations in the process.

He referred the matter to the existing nine-member committee headed by Aam Aadmi Party legislator Bhavna Gaur and asked it to submit a report in the next Assembly session.

The sealing drive was discussed in the Assembly for most of the time in past two days with the ruling AAP and the opposition BJP blaming each other for the drive. "We are protesting in the House on deliberate delay caused by the incorrigible Kejriwal govt to pass an order on the Notification of 351 Roads for mixed land use to protect the traders' interest that has been awaiting approval since the past 10 years," said opposition leader Vijender Gupta

The sealing drive is being carried out by a Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee against business establishments using residential properties for commercial purposes, and it is being implemented by the three BJP-led municipal corporations in the national capital.

Delhi Urban Development Minister Satyendra Jain alleged Delhi MCD & BJP led opposition were delaying the process of notifying the roads and troubling the traders with sealing and conversion charges .

The AAP MLAs alleged that businessmen were being 'harassed' by the corporations and that there was 'huge corruption' involved in the process.

The Monitoring Committee was set up by the Supreme Court in 2006 for sealing the premises of erring businessmen. But in 2012, the apex court asked the committee to stop the drive.

In December 2017, the Supreme Court ordered resumption of the sealing drive and revived the Monitoring Committee.