Legislature neglected, executive strengthened!

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi, August 29

Legislative process has taken a backseat in Delhi following the Delhi government’s continued approach in strengthening the executive at the cost of the legislature.

Experts say that due to this policy, the government now calls as few sittings as possible. This means that the issues concerning the public hardly get debated. Citing the latest example, an official of the Vidhan Sabha said that the Delhi Cabinet has not yet taken a decision to convene the Monsoon session of the Assembly.

At least 15 day’s notice is mandatory before convening the session of the assembly. The Cabinet has not yet passed the note. However, it is believed that the Monsoon session of the Assembly would commence from September 22 and end on September 26. As there are two holidays in between, there would only be three working days in the entire session. This is the shortest Monsoon session since the Delhi Assembly came into being following the Government of NCT of Delhi Act, 1991.

Speaker of the Assembly Chaudhary Prem Singh has repeatedly said that the assembly should sit for at least 50 days in a year. However, a Speaker can only voice his concern but cannot force the government to convene a session. In a recent conference of the Chief Whip’s of various states, it was suggested that for small assemblies, like Delhi, the total sittings should be of 50 days in a year. Ironically, this has never been followed in Delhi since the state came into being after the 69th Amendment Act of the Constitution.

Last year (2004), the assembly was in session for only 19 days, the Budget session being the longest of 12 days. It was only the first Assembly, constituted in 1993 which saw the maximum working days – 130. The second assembly, constituted in 1998 had only 106 working days. The third or the present assembly seems to be going worse with only 35 working days in the last around two years.

Though the Congress legislators too are worried at this trend, they have hardly demanded more sessions. The BJP, however, wants more sittings so that the issues of Delhi are discussed threadbare and the approval of the legislature is taken before policy decisions. Delhi BJP President Harsh Vardhan had demanded a special one-day session of the Assembly to discuss the issue of power. (2005)