The Hindu : New Delhi News : Dissidents force House adjournment

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Friday, Apr 01, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Dissidents force House adjournment

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 31 . On a day when dissidents within the Congress party held the sway, the Delhi Assembly was forced to adjourn for the day after the ruling party members, supported by the Opposition benches, strongly objected to the absence of the DDA Vice-Chairman, Madhukar Gupta, during the discussion on performance of the Delhi Development Authority and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

The short duration discussion moved by Ramvir Singh Bidhuri (NCP) could not take place as the Speaker, Bhisham Sharma, who was in the Chair ruled that in the absence of the DDA Vice-Chairman, he cannot carry on with the discussion in view of the sentiments expressed by the members and therefore the House was adjourned. Condemning the incident, Mr. Bidhuri said there was a deliberate attempt to avoid discussion on DDA and MCD as the performance of both had left a lot to be desired. The Congress did not want that discussion to take place on these two issues, as all the members would have condemned their functioning. There is no answer on why the Corporation was not being divided into three parts and why DDA was not being given to Delhi Government. There is a total lack of coordination among the Delhi Government, DDA and MCD that had resulted in a very sorry state of affairs. The Government, he charged, was trying to run away from discussion on contentious issues in the House and this reflected poorly on their tall claims of being open and transparent.

Earlier, the ruling party members took upon themselves the role of the opposition and did not allow the House to function after Question Hour demanding that the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, give an undertaking that the sanitation services would not be privatised. This forced the Speaker, Chaudhary Prem Singh, to adjourn the House even after an assurance by Ms. Dikshit that she would convey the sentiments of the members to the Corporation.

Soon after the tea-break when the House assembled to take up the discussion on DDA and MCD, the ruling party members were on their feet demanding the presence of the DDA Vice-Chairman during the discussion. They pointed out that his absence from the House was an insult to Assembly proceedings and discussion on such an important issue could not take place without the presence of the Head of the Department of DDA. Attempts by the Urban Development Minister, A.K. Walia, to pacify the members by stating that the Principal Commissioner, D.M. Bansal, was present in the Officers Gallery and therefore there was no need to feel that the House was being ignored. However, this did not satisfy the members and the House was adjourned for 30 minutes. All attempts to get in touch with the DDA Vice-Chairman proved futile and it was announced in the House that he would not be able to come to the House, as he was busy in a meeting. However, the members were again on their feet and protested against this leading to the adjournment of the House for the day.

Later, Mr. Bhisham Sharma said he had gone by the rules and once his ruling had been given, he could not go back on it. He said the Chief Minister had approached him to allow the discussion to be held but he cited his ruling in the matter. However, the dissidents were elated as they were not only able to have their way but also succeeded in getting an important discussion sabotaged that was likely to be used by the loyalists to bash up performance of the Corporation.

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