New Delhi: Delhi Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena has appointed Gandhi Nagar legislator Arvinder Singh Lovely as the pro-tem Speaker of the Delhi Assembly to chair the proceedings during the first sitting of the legislature on Monday.
Four-time legislator Arvinder Singh will perform the duties of the Office of the Speaker till the new Speaker is elected.
In a notification published in Delhi Gazette, the legislative Assembly secretariat quoted an L-G’s order which said, “I hereby appoint Arvinder Singh Lovely, a member of the newly elected Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi to perform the duties of the Office of the Speaker from the commencement of the said meeting and until the new Speaker is elected.”
The LG’s order added, “I also hereby appoint Arvinder Singh Lovely to be the person before whom Members of the newly elected Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi shall make and subscribe oath or affirmation in accordance with the provisions of section 12 of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991.”
The first sitting of the new 70-member Assembly will take place on February 24 for electing the Speaker with the CAG reports expected to be placed on the table of the House on February 25.
Vijender Gupta, a three-time legislator and three-time councillor who has been designated by the BJP to be the next Speaker, said the proposal to call a three-day session of the legislature – February 24, 25 and 27 – was approved by the Delhi Cabinet in its first meeting on Thursday.
He said since the CAG reports, including the one pointing to lapses in the now-withdrawn excise policy, have already been received in the office of the Speaker of the outgoing Assembly, these will be the first to be taken up by the new House.
The CAG reports are expected to expose the alleged financial mismanagement of the previous AAP governments led by Arvind Kejriwal.
The excerpts of a few CAG reports that managed to reach the public domain revealed a revenue loss of over Rs 2,026 crore due to irregularities in the Delhi government’s excise policy.
(IANS)
