Parliament adjourned sine die after Budget Session
Parliament adjourned sine die on Friday after conclusion of the Budget Session which saw presentation of the first full Budget of the Narendra Modi Government’s third consecutive term in office.
Delhi Speaker Ram Niwas Goel on Thursday accused Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal of “patronising” government officers and said that the L-G was “drunk with power”.
Addressing the media, Goel accused the L-G of not responding to his letter in which he had sought details of the communication from the Union Law Ministry that had barred him from taking questions on “reserved subjects”.
Goel said on 27 March he had written to the L-G asking him to provide the copies of the communication in connection with not taking questions on reserved subjects, but there was no response from the L-G’s office.
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On 19 March in the middle of the Budget session, the Assembly had received a communication from Centre through L-G’s office that the Speaker cannot accept any question on reserved subjects, like land, law and order, and services among others.
Goel along with other Aam Aadmi Party MLAs had expressed “displeasure” over the order and had called it “unfair”.
Goel said that on the directions of the L-G office, replies to 36 questions ~11 starred and 25 unstarred~ were not provided by some departments on the pretext of them being “reserved” subjects.
Goel said if a question can be answered through RTI then why an elected member’s question cannot be answered.
“Should a question not be asked if any officer is involved in corruption? The way L-G has patronised officers is strongly objectionable. It is murder of the democracy. He is drunk with power,” he alleged.
Giving an account of the business of the Budget session of the Assembly, Goel said that a total of 667 notices of questions were received for question hour session and 69 starred questions and 138 supplementary questions were asked and replied to in the House.
Goel said that all the questions that were not answered by various departments on the pretext of being “service subject” have been referred to the Questions and Reference Committee and the Committee of Privileges.
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