NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented move, Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel on Tuesday adjourned the Assembly proceedings for half-an-hour in protest against officers "declining" answer to a question raised by the legislator on "reserved subjects." The move came after Home department of Delhi government did not provide answer to question number 132 pertaining to police station level committees. "I adjourn the proceedings for 30 minutes in protest against this," Goel said.
The AAP MLA, Vishesh Ravi, who had asked the question said that the Thana-level committees were replaced with district level committees chaired by the MP concerned. "I have attended 4-5 meetings and except one, the MP was absent in all others. No work is being done by these committees," he said, expressing dissatisfaction over reply to his question. Ravi had sought to know the reason for discontinuing the Thana-level committees, number of meetings held, and attendance of MP, with regard to Central district, in the current year.
Home minister Satyendar Jain expressed disappointment over the failure of his department to provide answer to the question asked by the MLA.
The Speaker also referred a question related with illegal inter-state buses plying in Delhi to the Question and Reference committee of the House, after reply on it was found unsatisfactory.
On Monday also, the Speaker had referred a question to Question and Reference Committee of the House as officials did not give a "proper written answer". Last week also saw AAP MLAs attacking officers for giving "incomplete" and "false" answers to Assembly questions. On Tuesday, while one question was referred to Question and Reference Committee, another was referred to Estimates Committee. The state Assembly was rocked on Monday also with the Centre asking Speaker Goel not to accept any question on "reserved subject." The AAP legislators had came down heavily on officers for not giving a "proper reply" to an Assembly question, prompting Goel to refer the matter to the Question and Reference Committee.
Notably, the bureaucrats have drawn flak on several occasions since the start of the state Assembly's Budget Session on March 16. On March 20, the Speaker had forwarded four matters involving the officers to the Question and Reference Committee following the demand of action by the AAP MLAs. The ruling AAP and the bureaucracy have been involved in a tussle over various issues after an alleged assault by some Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators on Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence.