The Monsoon Session, the last of the current Delhi Assembly, started on a stormy note on Tuesday with the opposition cornering the government on skyrocketing prices of onion, water scarcity across the capital and other issues.
The House started with paying homage to O.P. Bahal and Srichand, both former metropolitan councillors. The House also paid homage to the Uttarakhand flood victims and the jawans and officials of security forces and disaster management who lost their lives in the rescue operation.
As the question hour started at 2.10 pm, Leader of the Opposition Vijay Kumar Malhotra and his partymen started shouting slogans against the government for sharp rise in prices of vegetables.
“The Congress government is providing food grains to the poor with Food Security Bill but they must understand that the poor have to buy costly vegetables also. The city Congress government has completely failed in regulating the price of onions in the city,” Mr Malhotra said. MLAs Bharat Singh, Satyaprakash Rana and Pradyuman Rajput protested over the poor water supply forcing the Speaker to adjourn the proceedings for half-an-hour at 2.40 pm.
The House reassembled at 3.10 pm and BJP chief whip Saheb Singh Chauhan and MLA Krishan Tyagi raised the issue of discrepancies in the public distribution system (PDS) which is the base for Food Security Bill. BJP MLA from Dabri, Pradyuman Rajput, trooped into the well over water scarcity in his area. He was evicted from the House by marshals after repeated requests of the Speaker.
“The city government is not providing adequate water in our area. Congress MP of our area Mahabal Mishra is deliberately creating issues with water supply. The DJB personnel filed a FIR against me on false charges as I visited their offices frequently,” he said.
The Delhi Marriage Registration Act has been deferred to the next Assembly session. The discussion on this bill also triggered a controversy when Mr Malhotra demanded an early implementation of the Act.
BJP MLA Mohan Singh Bisht accused the government for delaying development work in the unauthorised colonies in BJP ruled constituencies. Delhi urban development minister Arvinder Singh Lovely retaliated and said, “We do not differentiate development. Development works are being done in each and every unauthorised colony in the capital.”
The government also passed the Delhi Urban Development (Amendment) Bill, 2013 and the Delhi Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2013.