The Hindu : New Delhi News : Demolitions rock Assembly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 23, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Demolitions rock Assembly

Staff Reporter

BJP MLAs expelled, physically evicted from House

NEW DELHI: The ongoing demolitions across the Capital rocked the Delhi Assembly for the second consecutive day on Thursday with the BJP legislators being expelled for two days. The Opposition members had to be physically lifted out of the Assembly by the marshals after they stalled the House proceedings charging the Delhi Government with betraying the people of the Capital and demanding an end to the demolitions in the city.

As soon as question hour began, the BJP legislators were on their feet demanding to know from the Delhi Government why the resolution of the House had not been implemented to put an end to the demolitions. Accusing Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and her party of betraying the interests of the people, the BJP leaders said it was sad that the proceedings of the House were not being taken seriously. They wanted to know from the Delhi Government what it was doing to get the resolution implemented and if the resolution had no meaning then why the House was debating all such matters.

All efforts by Speaker Chaudhary Prem Singh to pacify the agitated BJP members failed as they demanded suspension of question hour and wanted a discussion on why demolitions were not being stopped. As the protests became very vocal and some BJP members rushed to the well of the House, Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely read out a resolution naming all 18 BJP members present in the House seeking their expulsion for two days for disturbing the proceedings. Surprisingly, even those BJP members who were seated and did not make vocal protests were shunted out of the House. However, the BJP members refused to leave and immediately the House marshals were called in to evict the unruly members including Kulwant Rana, Moti Lal Sodhi, Vijay Jolly, Mohan Singh Bisht, Harsharan Singh Balli and Sahib Singh Chauhan.

Later, the BJP members sat on dharna under the statue of Mahatma Gandhi protesting against the indifferent attitude of the Sheila Dikshit Government and failure to protect the interests of the people. "The Chief Minister should resign immediately as she has lost the moral right to continue in office," said Leader of the Opposition Jagdish Mukhi.

"It is shocking that Ms. Dikshit has been meeting builders through the Congress Chief Whip and she has no time for the innocent citizens whose houses are being razed. It is unfortunate that the Delhi Assembly has been reduced to just a debating forum and its decision have no meaning," rued Mr. Jolly.

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