Delhi Assembly proceedings were adjourned on Wednesday amid protests by AAP MLAs demanding the suspension of the Chief Secretary, Finance Secretary and Health Secretary for allegedly obstructing the Government’s work. Adjourning the proceedings, Speaker Ram Niwas Goel also extended the Assembly session by a day as the three-day session was scheduled to conclude on Wednesday.
The protest started after MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj presented an interim report of the Assembly’s Petitions Committee which recommended that the President and the Union Home Ministry “take cognisance of this report of the Committee on Petitions and take appropriate action against the Chief Secretary and the Hon’ble Lieutenant-Governor.”
It also recommended that privilege proceedings be initiated against Principal Secretary, Finance, AC Verma, Health Secretary Amit Singla and Deputy Secretary, Finance, Manoj Sharma, for allegedly “misleading” the Committee and “disrespectful conduct and attempting to conceal information” during its hearing.
Presenting the report on the issue “sabotaging the functioning of OPD counters in Delhi Government hospitals at the behest of the L-G”, Bhardwaj, a member of the committee, said the panel had depositions of the Chief Secretary, Principal Finance Secretary and Health Secretary among other officers.
“The Chief Secretary was summoned by the Committee at 6.30 PM on Tuesday and he was there till 9.30 PM. We asked him about dozens of projects being stuck, but the Chief Secretary claimed that he did not have any knowledge of it,” Bhardwaj said.
He said that many officers had said they were “arm-twisted” by the Chief Secretary “at the behest of” the Lieutenant-Governor to “impede” Government works.
Around three dozen works, schemes and projects of various departments were stuck, he said and cited non-payment of funds to the Delhi Jal Board by the Finance Department for six months.
He said that payments for salaries and other expenses of Mohalla Clinics and the DTC were also obstructed.
“We took confidential depositions of several officers. Many officers said they were threatened by the Chief Secretary at the behest of the L-G to obstruct the functioning of the Government,” he said.
Bhardwaj said that the Chief Secretary as well as the Finance and Health Secretaries indulged in a “conspiracy” to “impede” the Government’s functioning.
As Bhardwaj presented the report, AAP MLAs trooped into the Well of the House demanding the suspension of the Chief Secretary and the Finance and Health Secretaries, prompting the Speaker to first adjourn the proceedings till 4.15 PM. When the protesters refused to relent after the House reconvened, the Speaker to adjourn the proceedings for the day.