‘Chief Secy interfering in functioning of Assembly’

Chairpersons of five Delhi Assembly committees on Friday alleged in a joint statement that the Chief Secretary was trying to interfere in the functioning of the legislature, ahead of the session that will start from June 6.

In the statement by Saurabh Bharadwaj, Rakhi Birla, Sanjeev Jha, Madan Lal and Vishesh Ravi, the ruling AAP MLAs and committee chairpersons said Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash had been “threatening” officials of the Delhi Assembly in order to “avoid Question Hour” during the upcoming three-day session. “Further, the Chief Secretary is pressurising the Law Department of Delhi government to extract wrongful opinion on the issue, which neither the department not the Chief Secretary have any locus to either seek or give an opinion [sic],” the statement read. The chairpersons also said that the Speaker was the only one who would decide on whether a Question Hour would take place or not.

Will write to Speaker

They said that they would write to Speaker Ram Niwas Goel asking him to “ensure the supremacy and sovereignty” of the Assembly was maintained.

The Assembly as well as the Delhi Secretariat the allegation of Vidhan Sabha officials being threatened was seen as baseless, said sources. There had been no communication between the Assembly Secretariat and the Delhi Secretariat on the matter of Question Hour in the upcoming session, they added. The session has been called by the AAP government to discuss the demand for full statehood for Delhi.