The Winter Session of the Delhi Assembly started on a stormy note as the Opposition demanded suspension of health minister A.K. Walia on the issue of deaths in Sushrut Trauma Centre.
The House started with obituaries to different leaders, including former Prime Minister I.K. Gujaral. As the Question Hour ended, the Opposition started its attack on health minister seeking his suspension. The Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, initiated the attack.
“Four people died in a city government hospital due to lack of oxygen. The health minister must take the responsibility and leave his post. Any practice of disaster management is wastage of time and money if the hospitals in the city government are not good enough to provide basic treatment to the patients. The government can not make the private company a scapegoat,” Mr Malhotra alleged. Other BJP leaders followed the same and demanded resignation of Mr Walia.
However, Mr Walia rebutted very politically and alleged that the hospital was made during the BJP rule in the city and the contract for oxygen cylinders were grant to the same company the time it was built.
“Because of your inefficiency in the municipal corporations, Delhi witnessed hundreds of death due to dengue fever. Why you are not resigning?” he asked.
But the BJP MLAs said that the health minister is dodging from the issue and the conversation got overheated. Mr Walia sarcastically asked Mr Malhotra to keep silent.
“You are a senior leader and still you are shouting. You have become an MLA from an MP, now do you want be a corporator?” he said.
BJP MLAs walked out from the House after Mr Walia’s statement just before the lunch.
The Opposition attacked the city government for allowing the FDI in multi-brand retail in the national capital.
Rebutting the Opposition charges, Congress MLA and parliamentary secretary of Delhi CM Mukesh Sharma said that the BJP is only chest beating on the issue.
“It is the nature of the Opposition to oppose every step of the government. They opposed foreign automobile companies which has provided lot of jobs in the country. They even opposed computer, which is the backbone of Indian IT industry, claiming that it will cost a lot of jobs. The FDI will bring jobs and money to India,” he said.