Centre vs Delhi: LG Anil Baijal 'drunk on power', says Delhi Assembly Speaker

Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel has accused Lt. Governor Anil Baijal of being "drunk on power".

New Delhi: Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel on Thursday said a letter seeking details of communication over "reserved subjects" was not replied to by Lt. Governor Anil Baijal and asserted the latter is "drunk on power".

Goel said no reply was received in response to a March 27 letter from his office to the office of Lt. Governor.

"It is highly condemnable that he did not found it fit to reply to a constitutional functionary. He is drunk on power," Goel said at a press conference.

The letter from Delhi Assembly was sent to the office of Lt Governor seeking copies of communication over "reserved subjects" between the Central Government and Lt. Governor.

Last month, the Ministry of Law had advised the Lt. Governor's office to communicate to the Speaker that he should not admit questions related to reserved subjects such as public order, police, services and land.

The answers related to these subjects were denied to the Assembly by the concerned department in its budget session.

"LG is protecting the officials. Why cannot Delhi MLAs ask questions over Delhi Police and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) that concern the interests of the people who have voted for them," Goel said.

He said that legal opinion will be sought for a future course of action in this regard.

"We will also pressurise the officers to provide information on the questions asked by the MLAs. We will also take legal opinion on it."

The Speaker also said that the budget session of assembly was disturbed by the opposition members.

"They were given much more time than allotted to them but still they disturbed the House and many important subjects could not be taken. Also, the sitting of House was delayed due to lack of quorum as the ruling party MLAs were not present in required numbers," he said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has 66 MLAs in the House.

The budget session of Delhi Assembly that lasted 16 days was the longest in past 23 years. Earlier, it had lasted 21 days in 1994 and 18 days in 1995.