‘LG told not to pass ration delivery scheme’ 8,000 illegal buses House adjourned plying in city: Gahlot over officials refusing to discuss ‘reserved’ subjects
BUDGET SPEECH Kejriwal slams BJP over delay in scheme for the doorstep delivery of ration, ongoing sealing drive
NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said that he, along with other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators, will start a door-to-door campaign from next week to explain why his government’s flagship scheme for the doorstep delivery of ration has not yet taken off.
“From next week, I will visit every jhuggi in Delhi to tell people that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has asked the lieutenantgovernor not to pass the doorstep delivery of ration scheme,” Kejriwal said during his speech on the Delhi Budget in the Assembly.
The chief minister said there are 70 lakh beneficiaries of Public Distribution System (PDS) in Delhi and that these people would not vote for the BJP for “denying” them their ration.
Kejriwal claimed that L-G Baijal “did not even show the basic courtesy” to discuss the proposal with him before putting forth his objections on file. “I personally met the L-G twice only for the ration delivery scheme. I literally told him that I have never asked anything from him till date. I also told him that I, myself, worked in Delhi’s slums for years to help them get their monthly ration [sic],” he said.
When Kejriwal was asked if his government would approach the court over the L-G’S alleged rejection of the proposal, he said, “We will go to the court of people.”
For most of his 25-minute speech, Kejriwal discussed the ration scheme and said that “even God would not forgive” the L-G for rejecting the proposal.
The chief minister also allowed Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta to register his arguments against the doorstep delivery proposal. In his arguments, Gupta alleged that the scheme would benefit “only the capitalists.”
“You are voluntarily inviting manual intervention which would only increase corruption in PDS,” Gupta said.
In reply, Kejriwal alleged that the BJP is opposing the ration delivery scheme because “half” of the 3,000 ration shops in Delhi were supposedly owned by BJP leaders. “The money that the BJP and Congress leaders get from ration shops owners will stop if this proposal is implemented in Delhi,” the CM claimed.
ON SEALING DRIVE
Bringing out the issue of the ongoing sealing drive in the Capital, Kejriwal said that the NDA government has turned the matter into an “ego battle”. “Kendriya sarkaar ne isko (sealing issue) moochh ki ladai bana liya hai,” he said.
Attacking the Centre for not bringing an ordinance to stop the sealing, Kejriwal said the sealing drive has left many people unemployed and has a potential to disrupt the city’s law and order situation.
Amid a tussle with the Haryana government over sharing of water, the chief minister also alleged that the (Bjp-led Haryana government) is indulging in “dirty politics” on the issue by supplying 70 to 80 MGD less water to the capital.
Speaking on the Budget that was presented on Friday, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said, “At a time when the Parliament passed the Union budget without even discussing it in the House, we in the Delhi Assembly are not only discussing it but also have allowed three out of the four Opposition leaders to put their views on it.”
Kendriya sarkaar ne isko (sealing issue) moochh ki ladai bana liya hai.
ARVIND KEJRIWAL, chief minister
NEW DELHI: Dissatisfied with the replies tendered by Delhi’s transport minister Kailash Gahlot on number of illegal buses plying in the city and the elevated BRT corridors, Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel referred the matters to assembly’s Questions and Reference Committee and the Estimates Committee respectively.
AAP MLA Raghuvinder Shokeen asked Gahlot to provide details of the illegal buses plying in the city and the steps taken by the government to prevent private operators.
Delhi’s transport minister on Tuesday revealed that around 8,000 illegally buses were found to be plying on the city’s roads between March 2017 and 2018 February. Gahlot was also asked tough questions about the details of the elevated BRT corridors that were proposed by the Delhi government. Dissatisfied with the answer for the same, speaker Goel forwarded the issue to the Estimates Committee for a probe.
On the illegal buses plying in the city, the transport minister said that the number of buses found plying illegally in the national capital had increased by 282% over the last year.
The total number of buses found plying illegally has increased to 7,961 in 2017-18 (till February) from 2,084 in 2016-17 — an increase of almost 280%, the transport minister said in his reply.
Meanwhile, Goel sent another unstarred question related to dismantling District Urban Development Agency (DUDA) to the Questions and Reference Committee of the House after Karol Bagh MLA Vishesh Ravi complained to Goel, saying that officers are not providing answers on pending proposals with the agency. NEW DELHI: Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel on Tuesday adjourned the House proceedings for half-an-hour in protest against officers “declining” answer to questions raised by legislators on “reserved subjects” such as public order, police and services.
The Speaker’s move came during the Question Hour after the home department did not provide answer to a question pertaining to the functioning of police station level “thana committees”. This was the first time when the Speaker adjourned the House proceedings as mark of protest against officers for not providing answers to questions on reserved subjects.
Later, Goel forwarded the matter to the privilege committee of the House for further action. “As there has been no reply from departments once again, I am adjourning the proceedings for 3o minutes in protest against this,” the Speaker told the House.
Earlier this month, the Union Law Ministry advised the Lieutenant Governor’s office to communicate to the Speaker that he should not admit any question related to reserved subjects such as public order, police, services and land and the concerned departments have been refusing to answer many questions on this ground.
Arvind Kejriwal also accused the BJP of indulging in “dirty politics”. “BJP trying to stall Delhi thro LG and bureaucracy. I feel v sad that people are being made to suffer due to BJP’S dirty politics. Despite BJP’S efforts to obstruct work and in most adverse conditions, AAP govt delivering,” Kejriwal tweeted.