Delhi speaker shares plan for Budget Session

Delhi Assembly committees will be formed before the Budget Session on March 24. Speaker Gupta aims for fairness and plans to digitize the assembly.

New Delhi

Speaker Vijender Gupta addresses a press conference. (PTI)

All key committees of the Delhi Assembly, such as the Public Accounts Committee, Petitions Committee and Privilege Committee, will be constituted before the Budget Session of the assembly begins on March 24, speaker Vijender Gupta said on Tuesday. He said he will hold the sessions in a “fair” and “impartial” manner, and do away with wrong practices followed during the past 10 years.

Gupta said he will also take steps to fully computerise the Delhi Assembly under the e-Vidhan project, which he said was “pending” for nearly 10 years, to make the assembly paperless.

“The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will start functioning from April 1. The committee has already been given two CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) reports on excise and health of the period pertaining to the rule of the AAP government. The PAC has to examine the reports and submit its report within three months. Further action will be taken based on the report of the PAC. I have also forwarded the CAG reports to the excise and the health department and sought action taken report from the departments within a month,” Gupta told HT.

In a press conference, Gupta said: “I intend to run the assembly in a fair and impartial manner. We shall do away with all the wrong practices which had been followed during the past 10 years. Now, all the sessions shall be duly prorogued. The practice of holding sessions in part for the whole year will not be followed. Special sessions will be called only in emergent and important situations.”

“There will be Question Hour in the Budget Session, a practice which had been almost done away by the previous government. All the members will be given equal importance irrespective of the party affiliation,” Gupta said.

The Speaker is also planning the develop the Delhi assembly, which has a rich over 100 years long history, into a national monument and a tourist attraction.

“The Delhi Assembly building holds vast historic significance in our freedom struggle. We will consult experts in this matter and develop the Old Secretariat as a national monument and major tourist attraction,” Gupta said.

The building in which the Delhi Assembly is currently located in Civil Lines was built for the meeting of the Imperial Legislative Council—the legislature of British India from 1861 to 1947 established to make laws and policies—and the first session of the Imperial Legislative Council was held in this Council Chamber in January 1914. In 1919, the repressive Rowlatt Act, a repressive law granting police power to arrest anyone, was passed at a meeting held in this building.

The historic chamber of Delhi Assembly also stands as a witness to the fiery speeches of freedom fighters and parliamentarians such as VJ Patel, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Moti Lal Nehru, and Madan Mohan Malviya, among others.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will inaugurate a two-day orientation programme for newly elected Delhi MLAs at the Delhi Assembly beginning on March 9, Speaker Vijender Gupta told HT. Gupta called upon Birla on Tuesday afternoon.

An official said that the PAC reviews the government’s finances, examines annual CAG reports and is responsible for ensuring that the government spends money as approved by the assembly.

In all, there are 32 assembly committees that undertake a wide array of functions.

On the recently concluded session, the speaker said: “As per established practice, the members took their oath on the first day i.e. 24th March 2025. During these five sittings, the House conducted business for 18 hours and 18 minutes; 126 views were expressed on various issues. It is nothing short of a record that so many members got a chance to debate in the first session itself.”

Officials said preparations are currently underway at the assembly for CM Gupta to hold consultations with women’s organisations to take their inputs for the budget, as they underlined that the governments will take inputs from all sections of the society to make Delhi a developed city.