House disrupted: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal marches to LG house

NEW DELHI: The tussle between LG V K Saxena and the AAP government cast its shadow over the Delhi assembly session Monday. Members from both sides entered the well over AAP’s allegation of LG’s interference in functioning of the Delhi government. When order couldn’t be restored after two adjournments, the assembly was adjourned for the day.
Soon after this, CM Arvind Kejriwal, ministers, MLAs and AAP workers marched to Raj Niwas demanding immediate approval for the government’s proposal to send 30 teachers for training to Finland.

Session’s day 1 consigned to LG-AAP tussle
The tussle between the lieutenant governor and the elected government of Delhi dominated whatever little of the assembly session could be held on Monday. The proceedings could not go on with both AAP and BJP members entering the well of the House. While the AAP MLAs were protesting what they called the LG’s interference in governance, the BJP members contrived a protest against the pollution in the city.
The day started with BJP members carrying oxygen cylinders into the House to protest the state government’s alleged inaction on air pollution. Speaker Ram Niwas Goel asked the BJP MLAs to take the cylinders away, wondering how they had been able to bring them into the House. Terming it as a security lapse and noting that the cylinders could be used to injure someone, he also summoned the security officers to his chamber to discuss the matter.

Soon after, AAP legislator Saurabh Bhardwaj called attention to the “illegal and unwanted obstructions and interferences in the education of children and training of teachers”. The party accused the LG of not clearing the proposal to send teachers for a training in Finland, though the LG office claimed it hadn’t rejected the proposal, but was only ascertaining the cost-benefit analysis.
Bharadwaj continued, “Our government was formed in February 2015 and after a three-year-long battle, in July 2018, the Supreme Court constitutional bench said that the LG had authority only over services, law and order and land. Over the rest, he had no authority.”
The AAP MLA said, therefore, that whatever matter was sent to him by the elected government, the LG could not negate it. “Either he has to say yes or send it to the president for referral. This is as per the Constitution, but these people do not follow even the Constitution,” he alleged. “For the past several months, we have seen every file being returned by the new LG with some note or the other.”
When he said that the BJP MLAs were advocates for the LG, following neither rules nor the Constitution, even commenting that “Bidhuriji has become the LG’s secretary”, leader of the Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri retorted, “Saurabh Bharadwaj is giving false statements on the issue.”
The session lasted for around 20 minutes after which it was adjourned for 10 minutes. When the sitting resumed, Bharadwaj raised the issue again, accusing the LG “of not following the Constitution” and calling his functioning “a dictatorship”.

After Bharadwaj said the LG stopping Delhi government’s development work warranted a cost-benefit analysis just as much as the LG wanting the same on teachers training in Finland, AAP MLAs started raising slogans against the constitution head and the Speaker had to adjourned the House for half an hour after proceedings lasted less than five minutes.
When the House resumed a third time, before anyone could speak, the AAP MLAs once again entered the well with banners that read “LG sahib, allow teachers to undergo training” and “LG, allow teachers to go to Finland”.
When BJP MLAs then entered the well of the house to protest against the pollution, speaker Goel adjourned the session for the day.