Assembly question: Speaker adjourns House over officers 'declining' to reply

Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel today adjourned the House proceedings for half-an-hour in protest against officers "declining" answer to questions raised by legislators on "reserved subjects" such as public order, police and services.

The Speaker's move came during the Question Hour after the home department did not provide answer to a question pertaining to the functioning of police station level "thana committees".

Later, Goel forwarded the matter to the privilege committee of the House for further action. "As there has been no reply from departments once again, I am adjourning the proceedings for 3o minutes in protest against this," the Speaker told the House.

Earlier this month, the Union Law Ministry advised the Lt Governor's office to communicate to the Speaker that he should not admit any question related to reserved subjects such as public order, police, services and land and the concerned departments have been refusing to answer many questions on this ground.

This is the first time when the Speaker has adjourned the House proceedings as mark of protest against officers not providing answers to questions on reserved subjects.

AAP MLA Vishesh Ravi, who had asked the question, said that police station-level committees were replaced with district-level committees chaired by the parliamentarian concerned.

"I have attended 4-5 meetings and except one, the MP was absent in all others. No work is being done by these committees," he said, expressing dissatisfaction over reply to his question.

Ravi had sought to know the reason for discontinuing the Thana-level committees, number of meetings held, and attendance of MP, with regard to central district, in the current year.

Home Minister Satyendar Jain also expressed disappointment over failure of his department to provide answer to the question asked by the MLA.

During the day, bureaucrats came under attack of the Aam Aadmi Party legislators as four matters involving officers were forwarded to the House committees.

Goel also referred a question pertaining to illegal inter-state buses plying in the national capital to the Question and Reference Committee of the House, after reply on it was found "unsatisfactory".

He sent the matter of District Urban Development Agency (DUDA) to the Question and Reference Committee of the House after Karol Bagh MLA Vishesh Ravi complained to Goel, saying that officers are not providing answers on pending proposals with the agency.

"It is serious matter. I am referring the matter to Question and Reference Committee," the Speaker said.

The matter of questions going unanswered or in some cases "incomplete replies" have dominated the ongoing budget session of the House with AAP MLAs using it to target a section of bureaucrats.