By IANS,
New Delhi : As many as 21 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators Thursday were removed from the Delhi legislative assembly for disrupting proceedings as they demanded Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s resignation for alleged irregularities in the Commonwealth Games projects.
As the proceedings of the house began Thursday afternoon, Leader of Opposition V.K. Malhotra, citing a newspaper report, claimed that the V.K Shunglu Committee has indicted Delhi Lt-Governor Tejendra Khanna and Dikshit, among others, for delays and losses in Games projects.
In response, Dikshit said she had only heard it through the media. “I got it through media and I don’t have any idea about the report,” she said.
As Malhotra demanded Dikshit’s resignation, other BJP members joined him. Raising slogans against the government and demanding Dikshit quit, they rushed towards the speaker’s podium.
Speaker Yoganand Shastri repeatedly asked the BJP members to return to their seats but when they refused, he ordered the 21 of the party’s total 24 legislators to be marshalled out.
Although Malhotra and senior party leaders Jagdish Mukhi and Harsharan Singh Balli were not ordered to be removed, they boycotted the proceedings and walked out of the house.
Shunglu, a former comptroller and auditor general (CAG), was appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to head the committee probing corruption in the Commonwealth Games held last October.
The committee has submitted two reports, one on the Games Village and the other on city’s infrastructure development for the event.