NEW DELHI: The Delhi Assembly was thrown into a turmoil on Friday as the Opposition BJP stalled the proceedings forcing adjournment of the House, demanding resignation of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for the "strong indictment" by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report that probed the controversial privatisation of power distribution in the Capital three years ago. Later in the day all BJP members were expelled from the House for trying to disrupt the proceedings.

The ruckus began as soon as the House unanimously passed a resolution for adoption of the PAC report that has recommended a CBI probe into the dubious role of senior bureaucrats as well as finalisation of the entire privatisation deal. Opposition leader Jagdish Mukhi said a serious situation had arisen after the acceptance of the report by the House and the Government was in crisis.

Stating that the report had exposed corruption in the privatisation of power deal running into hundreds of crores and involvement of bribe-taking and money changing hands to benefit business houses, Mr. Mukhi said in view of these developments the Chief Minister should immediately resign. His colleagues Harsh Vardhan, Harsharan Singh Balli and Sahib Singh Chauhan joined him. All of them said there was no alternative for the Chief Minister but to resign.

The Speaker, Chaudhary Prem Singh, tried to persuade the BJP members to allow the proceedings to go on smoothly but they refused to listen forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House.

Immediately after the House resumed its proceedings, the BJP members were again on their feet asserting that the PAC report by senior Congress MLA S.C. Vats had exposed the serious corruption in the privatisation deal and the Chief Minister had no right to continue in her position. As the din continued, some party MLAs led by Karan Singh Tanwar, Ravinder Bansal, Puran Chand Yogi, Sushil Chaudhary, S.P. Ratawal and Jai Bhagwan rushed to the well of the House chanting slogans demanding the resignation of the Chief Minister. As the pleas to ensure order in the House failed, the Speaker named the MLAs who were physically lifted by the marshals from the House. Later, other party MLAs including Mr. Mukhi and Dr. Vardhan were also expelled from the House for causing disruption.

Later speaking to newsmen, both Mr. Mukhi and Dr. Vardhan said that their campaign for resignation of the Chief Minister would continue inside and outside the House. "What we had been alleging for the past three years has been confirmed by the PAC. It is a vindication of our stand that corruption played a big role in privatisation of power," Mr. Mukhi said. Dr. Vardhan said that a meeting of senior party leaders and workers had been convened for Saturday to discuss the situation arising out of the PAC report and warned that the BJP would take to the streets to demand removal of Ms. Dikshit.

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