BJP MLA suspended for a year for questioning the budget in the Delhi assembly
22 Mar 2023 15:59:57
New Delhi, Mar 22: Vijender Gupta, a senior leader, and BJP MLA from Delhi were suspended from the Assembly on Tuesday for purportedly impeding the House proceedings. The Speaker of the Delhi Assembly, Ram Niwas Goel, suspended Gupta for one year until the next Budget session.
Speaker Goel responded to a breach of privileges notice filed by a BJP MLA on Tuesday regarding the alleged leakage of Budget details. According to reports, the notice was given too close to the start of the session, and the Speaker stated that such notices must be given at least three hours in advance.
"As per rules, such notice needs to be given three hours before. You are also saying that it should be taken up for discussion. It seems the aim is to create a ruckus and waste the time of the House," Speaker Goel was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI. Gupta's notice referred to the disclosure of information regarding the 'Outcome Budget', which had been presented in the Assembly on Monday. When the House resumed its session at 2 pm, Gupta brought up the matter again, resulting in a heated exchange of words between the AAP and BJP. Sanjeev Jha, an AAP MLA, called for Gupta's expulsion from the Assembly for a year. The House agreed with the motion, and Gupta was suspended from participating in the Delhi Assembly proceedings until the next Budget session in 2024. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday approved the Delhi Budget 2023-24 and conveyed it to the Delhi government.
The Delhi government's Budget for 2023-24, which was scheduled to be presented on Tuesday, was put on hold after the Home Ministry sought clarifications from the AAP government as its budget proposal had high allocations for advertisement and relatively low funding for infrastructure and other development initiatives.
