New Delhi: Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta on Thursday rejected Leader of the Opposition Atishi’s plea to allow a discussion on the allegedly deteriorating law and order situation in the city, saying the issue does not fall under the jurisdiction of the government.
“The notices submitted by the Opposition, which I did not accept, were merely an attempt to misuse the procedures of the House and create organised disruptions. I will not allow this,” said the Speaker.
Speaker Gupta also objected to LoP Atishi releasing her letter, addressed to him to seek a debate under the Special Mention rule, to the media.
“I learned about the Leader of the Opposition’s letter from the media even before receiving it officially. This is not the first time such an incident has occurred. It has become a habit of the Opposition members to approach the media first instead of addressing their concerns directly with me,” he said.
After the permission was denied for a discussion on Delhi’s law and order in the Assembly, Atishi said, “How can legislators be prevented from raising such a serious issue when extortions, kidnappings and firing are taking place freely?”
“It seems Speaker Vijender Gupta wants to hide the failure of the BJP’s Double Engine government,” she said.
In her letter, she wrote, “It seems that you want to stop this discussion due to the inability of the BJP’s Central government to stop the increasing crime in Delhi.”
“Before the elections, the BJP used to say that the problems of Delhi would be solved by the coming of the Double Engine government, and after winning the elections, they are saying that they will not let anyone speak about the problems. Discussion ends, problem ends,” wrote the LoP,
“Speaker Sir, I request that every issue of Delhi should be discussed on the floor of the Delhi Legislative Assembly. Stopping this would be an insult to democracy,” she wrote.
After the rejection of five AAP legislators’ request for discussion on Delhi’s law and order situation, the Speaker issued a statement, saying, “I have received a letter from the Leader of the Opposition, Atishi, regarding my decision not to permit certain notices of Special Mention submitted by some members.”
“In this regard, I would like to inform the honorable members that they should raise questions or engage in discussions only on subjects for which the minister concerned can provide answers or take appropriate action,” he said.
Citing the exceptional situations which demand dilution of this stipulation, the Speaker said: “However, considering the nature of the issues raised in the House, the Speaker may allow notices on reserved subjects only if they are deemed extremely urgent and important matters affecting the people of Delhi and requiring the immediate attention of the House.”
“Issues raised under Special Mention must be related to matters of urgent public importance. However, I have observed that instead of focusing on real issues affecting the public, Opposition members are more interested in creating disturbances,” he said.
He added that the Delhi Assembly follows the Special Mention rules as prescribed in the Rajya Sabha. According to Rule 180B (II) of the Rajya Sabha rules, it is clearly stated that a Special Mention should not refer to a matter that does not primarily fall under the jurisdiction of the government.
The Speaker said, in his statement, that he would always welcome healthy and democratic debates in the House. “However, I will not permit any discussions that are solely aimed at gaining political advantage and wasting the time of the House for self-glorification in the media,” said Gupta.
(IANS)
