The Delhi Assembly on Friday witnessed heated arguments between the Opposition BJP and the ruling party members over the issue of alleged misbehaviour with an Urban Development Department employee by a BJP MlA. Congress MlA and chairperson Delhi Commission for Women Barkha Singh raised the issue while the Opposition accused the ruling Congress of exploiting it for “political gains”.
A war of words between Treasury and Opposition benches erupted in the House forcing Speaker Yoganand Shastri to adjourn the House twice before adjouring it for the day. Raising the issue in the Assembly, Singh slammed Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel’s allegations that Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was behind filing of the “false case” against party MlA Ramesh Bidhuri.
As soon as Singh criticised Goel, almost all the BJP MlAs rose on their feet and accused the government of “targeting” the Tughlakabad MlA for “political reasons”. Congress MlAs trashed the charges and attacked Bidhuri for the incident.
The incident took place on March 7 in the office of Department of Urban Development at Delhi Secretariat when the MlA went there to check development work in his constituency. Bidhuri alleged that the woman employee did not cooperate and refused to listen to him. This resulted in an argument between the two. After the incident, the woman employee informed the incident to the Urban Development Secretary RK Srivastava.
Based on the complaint, the Urban Development Department had filed a complaint against Bidhuri in the IP Estate police station under Sections 509 (outraging the modesty of woman) and 189 (threat of injury to public servant) of IPC. Subsequently, an FIR was filed against Bidhuri. The BJP MlA alleged that the employee had filed the complaint coming under pressure from a Minister. “She did not want to file the complaint. But she was told that if she does not file the complaint then she will be suspended,” Bidhuri claimed.
Earlier, leader of Opposition Vijay Kumar Malhotra trained its guns on Delhi Government on the issue of two Tihar inmates allegedly committing suicide this week, saying instead of trying to shift blame for lapses she should focus on improving security in the prison that comes under her Government. Raising the issue in the Assembly under special mention Rule 280, Malhotra held the Delhi Government responsible for “security lapses” inside the prison and asked Dikshit to take steps to ensure proper monitoring of the inmates.