The Hindu : New Delhi News : Delhi budget session likely to be a stormy affair

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 01, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Delhi budget session likely to be a stormy affair

Sujay Mehdudia

Sheila faces "serious dissensions'' from within the CLP and a opposition determined to corner her Government

NEW DELHI: The 14-day budget session of the Delhi Assembly that takes off on Wednesday is expected to be a stormy affair as the Sheila Dikshit Government will not only be faced with "serious dissensions'' from within the Congress Legislator Party (CLP) but also a determined Opposition that is likely to raise the ante on issues like the Public Accounts Committee reports on power privatisation and smart card scam.

In an unprecedented action, the Speaker, Chaudhary Prem Singh, who is at loggerheads with the Chief Minister, has decided to hold the sittings of the Assembly even on Saturdays in view of the Government's refusal to extend the sittings of the House. Interestingly, despite instructions by the Congress high command the Chief Minister has not convened the CLP meeting before the commencement of the session and it is likely to be held during the session. Indications of a troubled session were visible during the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) on Monday when Congress chief whip Ramakant Goswami clashed with Vidhan Sabha Secretary Siddharth Rao on extending the Budget session to take up important issues like water, power and demolitions. Mr. Goswami said there was no question of extending the session and charged the Assembly Secretariat with playing into the hands of vested interests. Mr. Prem Singh took a serious note of this and immediately decided that the Assembly will also meet on Saturdays.

Similarly, what could turn out to be a major embarrassment for the Sheila Dikshit Government is the adoption of the PAC report on privatisation of power prepared by the Committee headed by senior Congress MLA S. C. Vats. The BAC has cleared for adoption the PAC report on power without opposition from loyalist MLAs. "If the PAC report is adopted in its present shape, then it would mean that the Government would have to abide by the stinging indictment of the privatisation process and the reported CBI probe into the bungling recommended by it. This would certainly put the Government in a state of crisis,'' said a senior official.

The "sulking mood'' in the loyalist camp could be gauged from the fact that only eight MLAs turned up for a meeting of the loyalists convened by former Minister Narendra Nath on Monday. These MLAs were also reportedly agitated that despite being by the side of Ms. Dikshit for such a long time, they were treated like "office messengers'' and they hardly had any say in the administration over-dominated by bureaucrats.

For its part, the Opposition BJP and Nationalist Congress Party MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri will once again try and put the Government on the mat over the power and water crises in the Capital, the ongoing demolitions in the city and the targeting of rural areas. "The issue of ban on unauthorised colonies by Supreme Court on the basis of a `misleading affidavit' filed by the DJB, the situation arising out of scarcity of water and the failure to get the Sonia Vihar plant going and exempting rural and urban villages from house tax and building by-laws will figure prominently,'' Mr. Bidhuri said.

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