Departing from normal practice, Short Duration Discussions in the Delhi Assembly have concluded without the reply of the Chief Minister or the Minister concerned. Speaker Ram Niwas Goel told The Pioneer that it is not necessary that the Minister makes any remarks on the Short Duration Discussions.

Setting aside the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of the Delhi Assembly, none of the concerned Ministers made any final remarks on any of the three Short Duration Discussions held in Vidhan Sabha on Monday. The matter was briefly raised by leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta in the House.

However, even the Opposition didn’t play by the rules as during the discussion initiated by BJP MlA Jagdish Pradhan on how the Delhi Government is allegedly misusing the public exchequer for its own publicity in the name of putting an end to corruption, BJP MlAs Vijender Gupta and OP Sharma deviated the discussion to allotment of cabins for them in the Vidhan Sabha premises.

Dinesh Mohania also initiated a discussion on power tariff hike by the private discoms year after year. He said that the tariff has been revised every year since 2002 despite power companies earning huge profits and exploiting the consumers.

“Power companies are actually earning profits and are showing false claims of running in losses,” he said alleging that such companies procure equipment at higher costs from their own sister companies to show losses in the books.

BJP MlA OP Sharma said that while the Government is sensationalising the issue, it has no will or intention to do anything about it. “The Delhi Government is a partner to the discoms with 49 per cent stake. Then why are they not taking any actionIJ Either they have no will, or they have no ability to do something about it,” he said, adding that instead of politicising the issue, the Government should form a committee to take strict action if any wrongdoing on part of the discoms. However, the Power Minister did not give any final remark on the discussion.

later, Rajesh Rishi also initiated a Short Duration Discussion on law and order problems in the city and accused the Central Government of using police to create hurdles in functioning of the Delhi Government. Somnath Bharti, while participating in the discussion, advocated that investigation powers be separated from law and order, and be brought under the control of the Delhi Government.

Maintaining the trend started in this Budget Session, none of the concerned Ministers made any remarks on any of the three issues.