BJP seeks more time to raise queries in House

NEW DELHI:  The Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri on Friday questioned the Delhi government over not giving enough time to legislators for raising questions during upcoming budget session.

Terming it as an “assault on democracy”, Bidhuri said Question Hour is an important component of Vidhan Sabha proceedings and by doing away with this critical instrument, the government was clearly running away from its responsibility of answering to the issues raised by legislators.

“The Question Hour is one of the most impor tant platforms of Delhi Assembly where MLAs get a chance to raise contentious and critical issues concerning their assembly segments and seek answers from the ruling party,” said the BJP leader.

The upcoming Budget session, which will commence on March 8 with the government presenting the public finances for next financial year, would be the first Budget of the Aam Aadmi Party government after the outbreak of deadly Covid-19 pandemic early last year.

The Budget session will begin with the tabling of Economic Survey Report. The Budget will be presented in the Assembly House on March 9. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s government had presented a Rs 65,000 crore budget for 2020-2021, which was around 10 per cent more than the 2019-20 Budget.

According to sources, the Delhi government is likely to come out with measures to boost revenue collection that has been hit hard and dropped by 42 per cent due to the pandemic and the successive lockdowns.