Cong to move breach of privilege motion against VK Malhotra

New Delhi: The Congress will move a breach of privilege motion against senior BJP leader VK Malhotra in the Delhi Assembly tomorrow, accusing him of “undermining” the authority of the Speaker in the House. The decision by Congress came after Malhotra announced that BJP will bring a no-confidence motion against Speaker Yoganand Shastri, claiming that he has been running the House in a “partition manner”. [caption id=“attachment_555314” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] “We will bring a breach of privilege motion against Malhotra as he has undermined the authority of the Speaker which is a constitutional post. BJP has not been showing any respect to the Speaker’s rulings,” said Mukesh Sharma, Senior Congress MLA and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s Parliamentary Secretary. Condemning BJP’s “behaviour” towards the Speaker in the Assembly today, Sharma said the opposition party does not have any respect for either constitutional posts or institutions. The BJP decision to bring a no-confidence motion against the Speaker came following his ruling to suspend party MLAs from the House for one day after they created ruckus demanding a discussion on a Lokayukta report against Dikshit. Shastri had rejected BJP’s demand for discussion on the Lokayukta report on the alleged misrepresentation of facts by her on construction of low-cost flats. “In last four years, out of 84 days of Assembly session, he has kept Opposition members out for almost 40 days. He is not allowing us to raise our issues, we have decided to bring no-confidence motion against the Speaker,” Malhotra said after BJP MLAs were marshalled out of the House. In an order in July last year, Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin had sent a recommendation to the President to censure Dikshit for allegedly misrepresenting facts on construction of flats for poor people ahead of the 2008 Delhi Assembly polls. Then President Pratibha Patil in November last year had “advised” the Urban Development department, which is the nodal agency for construction of low cost flats, to exercise caution in making public announcements while rejecting the recommendation against Dikshit. The government, in an action taken report tabled in the Assembly yesterday, said there was no need to “resubmit” the report of the Lokayukta to the President for reconsideration. PTI