New Delhi, April 1 Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta on Tuesday criticised the casual behaviour of Opposition members reflected by their absence from the House when a debate on the city’s power situation was taken up on their request.
Expressing displeasure over the disrespect for legislative conventions, the Speaker said, “Today, Aam Aadmi Party MLA Kuldeep Kumar submitted a notice under Rule 54 regarding alleged power outages in several areas of Delhi. This notice was accepted and included in the agenda for discussion.”
“It was quite surprising that when the matter was taken up for consideration in the House at 4.40 p.m., neither Kuldeep Kumar nor any member of the Opposition was present in the House. This conduct of the opposition was completely irresponsible,” he said.
The House functions according to legislative procedures and rules, and it is inappropriate for the entire Opposition to be absent during the discussion of a topic that was included in the agenda at their own request, said an upset Speaker.
“We respect the democratic process. Therefore, despite the absence of Kuldeep Kumar and other opposition members, the House proceeded with the discussion on the issue. Eight members shared their views and condemned the behaviour of the Opposition,” he said, adding that Power Minister Ashish Sood presented a detailed statement on the matter, supported by facts.
“I am deeply disappointed by the Opposition’s behaviour. It proves that they are not serious about democratic processes and values. Opposition members often raise issues just to gain media attention, but when it comes to actual discussion, they choose to walk out of the House,” said Speaker Vijender Gupta.
Earlier, Power Minister Sood countered AAP members’ allegation that there has been a spurt in power cuts in the city after the BJP came to power.
He dished out data on the number of power cuts of over an hour that took place during each of the past 10 years of AAP rule and concluded that during the previous government’s rule, 75 power cuts of over 1 hour took place daily.
He said in 2015 the number of power cuts of over one hour were 31,285, in 2016 the number of cuts was 37,799, in 2017 it was 35,201, in 2018 it was 33486, in 2019 it was 26,588, in 2020 it was 23,100, in 2021 it was 21,005, in 2022 it was 22,987, in 2023 it was 22,061 and in 10 months of 2024 it was 18,300.
Sood urged Opposition AAP MLAs not to spread a false narrative on deterioration in the power situation in the city.
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