Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta said on Tuesday that there would be Question Hour in the March 24-26 Budget session, a practice which had almost been done away with by the previous AAP government.
“All the members will be given equal importance irrespective of the party affiliation. However, in case rules are violated, strict action will be taken. Maximum utilisation of the floor time will be my primary concern. The House will run with cooperation, balance, goodwill and established Rules,” Gupta said.
Addressing his first press conference as the Speaker of the Delhi Assembly, Gupta said, “I intend to run the Assembly in a fair and impartial manner and in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and our Rules of Procedure.”
“We shall do away with all the wrong practices that had been followed during the past ten years. Now, all the sessions shall be duly prorogued,” he said.
The Delhi Assembly Speaker said the practice of holding sessions in part for the whole year will not be followed. “Special sessions will be called only in emergent and important situations. The sessions of the Assembly are very important,” he said.
The Delhi Assembly Speaker further said that the eVidhan project to make the Assembly paperless is pending for nearly ten years. “I intend to take immediate steps to implement it and make Delhi Assembly fully computerised,” he said.
He said the first session of the VIII Assembly commenced on February 24 and was adjourned sine die on March 3. The sittings of the House were held on 24th, 25th, 27th, 28th February, and 3rd March 2025.
Speaker Gupta expressed anguish over the unruly action and disturbance during Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena’s address to the House, an action that forced him to suspend Opposition members. “The LG’s address is a solemn occasion and he was discharging his constitutional duties. The Rules of Procedure forbid such disturbances during the LG Address. The members were later suspended by the House for three sittings for disturbing the LG’s address,” he said.
Gupta said he was pained by the fact that Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Atishi and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs disturbed the proceedings when she was asked to speak on my election as the Speaker.
Reflecting on the just-concluded Assembly session, Speaker Gupta said, “The CAG’s ‘Performance Audit Report on Regulation and Supply of Liquor in Delhi’ was laid on the Table of the House on February 25 by Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and it was discussed in the House for two days. A total of 23 members participated in this discussion.”
He said on February 28, the chief minister tabled a CAG report on Public Health Infrastructure and Management of Health Services. The House discussed the Report on February 28 and March 3, 2025. “The Public Accounts Committee shall examine these reports. I have directed that the PAC shall submit its report within three months. The Excise and Health departments have been directed to send their action-taken reports within a month,” he said.
He also shared his plans to attract tourists to the historic building of the Delhi Assembly. “The Delhi Assembly building holds vast historic significance in our freedom struggle. We will consult experts in this matter and develop the Old Secretariat as a national monument and major tourist attraction,” he said.