A group of AAP MLAs who head various Delhi assembly panels today alleged that Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash had been threatening assembly officials asking them not to hold Question Hour during the upcoming three-day session of the legislature.
The charge came on a day the Delhi Police questioned Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in connection with the alleged assault on Prakash by AAP MLAs in February this year.
"It has been brought to our notice that the chief secretary is threatening the assembly officials and asking them to avoid the Question Hour during the three-day assembly session scheduled to take place on June 6, 7 and 8," according to a joint statement by Saurabh Bharadwaj, Rakhi Birla, Sanjeev Jha, Madan Lal and Vishesh Ravi.
Asked for details, Bharadwaj said Speaker Ram Niwas Goel informed them that the chief secretary had been making calls to the officials of the Assembly and threatening them asking not to hold the Question Hour.
He, however, did not give details about when and to whom the calls were made.
Bharadwaj said, "Neither the cabinet nor the chief secretary, who is secretary to the cabinet, has any say or locus in how the House proceedings will be conducted. So far as the Question Hour is concerned, it is the Speaker alone who decides whether Question Hour will be taken up during a particular session or not."
Delhi secretariat sources, however, said that the allegations of threats and intimidation were completely "false".
"There is no intimation by the chief secretary to the Assembly staff not to hold Question Hour. If there is any written communication, they (the panel) should make it public. There is no question of intervening in the functioning of Assembly," one of the sources added.
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