Denying Opposition charges that they were not allowed to speak in the House during Budget session, Assembly Speaker Hriday Narain Dikshit said that the members were given double the time from their allotted period.
“The Opposition members were given 36 per cent share in the debate in the House against their membership share of just 18.6 per cent,” Dikshit said while replying to the Opposition charges over which they boycotted the House for five days out of a total of 11-day session.
While addressing a press conference on Friday, the Speaker said that of the total 95 members participating in the debate on the Budget, 27 were from the Opposition bench and leaders of SP, BSP and Congress got more than their allotted time. “Besides, first time MlAs were given prominence in the Budget proceedings,” he said.
Commenting on the mock Assembly held by the Opposition in which they condoled the death of a sitting BJP member, Dikshit said: “I have already announced in the House that I will seek clarification from Opposition leaders for their role in the mock Assembly.”
“The process of sending letters to Opposition leaders is underway and after their reply, I will decide on action. It is the call for a natural justice to seek explanation from Opposition leaders before taking action as demanded by the ruling party members in the Assembly,” he added.
Asked about the recovery of explosives from the Assembly and as to why Chief Minister informed the House and not the Speaker about it, Dikshit said: “The Marshal noticed the substance inside the House and he informed the security personnel and other officials. There is no such binding that leader of the House or CM cannot inform the House about the incident.”
Replying to another charge of the Opposition that leader of the Opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary’s mike was switched off during the Budget intervention leading to their boycott, the Speaker justified that it is a norm that when the chair takes up the next point of the day’s agenda, no one can speak on the previous one.
“On that day, I had already moved ahead in taking up Notices under Rule 51 while the leader of the Opposition wanted to speak on the Budget which created the dispute,” he further explained.
Giving the details of proceedings of the 11-day Budget session of Assembly, the Speaker said that the Assembly secretariat had received 419 short notice questions, 730 starred questions and 1135 other questions of which a total of 1113 were replied. “Besides, 76 adjournment notices were received of which 23 were heard and in 18 cases, the attention of the government was drawn. Under rule -51, the assembly received 520 notices of which 48 were accepted and 171 were sent to the government for action,” he said.