AAP accuses L-G of interfering in govt work; Speaker suspends five protesting BJP MLAs

New Delhi: Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel on Tuesday suspended five BJP MLAs for the day after they protested against AAP MLA Atishi’s calling attention motion on the issue of alleged “illegal interferences” of Lieutenant Governor (L-G) V K Saxena in the education of children and training of teachers.

BJP legislators Ajay Mahawar, Jitendra Mahajan, OP Sharma, Abhay Verma and Anil Bajpai were marshalled out of the House on Goel’s directions.

Introducing the calling attention motion, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Atishi said Delhi is the only state which has earmarked a quarter of its budget for education.

The Kejriwal government has increased the budget for training of teachers by 10 times which has transformed the education system in the Capital, she said. “The L-G’s order to stop teachers from training in Finland is illegal. He holds a constitutional post and is not a BJP agent. He doesn’t have power to take independent decisions according to Supreme Court orders,” Atishi said.

AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj claimed officers were obstructing works at “the behest of the BJP-appointed L-G while the BJP MLAs are alleging

that Delhi government is not able to work”. The people of Delhi are irritated with the BJP for creating hurdles in the Kejriwal government’s works, he said.

This is the second day of the three-day session of the assembly that started on Monday.

Amid protest by MLAs of the ruling AAP against Lieutenant Governor Saxena’s alleged interference in the working of the city government, the assembly saw repeated adjournments on the first day of the session and hardly 10 minutes of proceedings could be held.

AAP MLAs accused the BJP of conspiring demolition of slums in the city after its defeat in the MCD polls, with Development Minister Gopal Rai asserting in the Assembly that the Kejriwal government stands with the slum dwellers.

Rai said it was a clear view of the AAP government that unless rehabilitation is carried out, no new demolition can take place.

Hitting back, Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri charged that the AAP MLAs “lied” in the Assembly without presenting complete picture of the issue. He said there were court orders for removal of slums in Tughlaqabad village and Mehrauli area.

Rai, participating in a debate in the House over a calling attention motion on “demolition notices received by residents of Tughlaqabad village”, said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government will take up the issue and it will not hesitate to take to streets to stop demolition of slums if need be.

“We will stop it. The government stands with the slum dwellers. It was our view even in 2015 when the AAP formed government in Delhi that there should be no encroachment but no slums should be removed unless people living there are rehabilitated,” he told the Assembly.

Initiating discussion on the motion, Tughlaqabad MLA Sahiram demanded registration of FIRs against officers who allowed development of the affected colony in his constituency.

“What were the officers doing when the colony was developing? Around 10,000 houses have been constructed there. There are 20,000 residents having voter ID cards and they have been given 15 days’ time to vacate,” Sahiram said urging the Speaker and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to take up the issue with the Centre to stop the demolition. Several other AAP MLAs complained of notices served on residents of slums under their constituencies by different agencies.

Kalkaji MLA Atishi said the notices started being issued a few weeks after the BJP lost the MCD polls, for demolition of slums in several parts of the city.