India News | AAP Likely to Raise Farmers' Protest Issue During Delhi Assembly Monsoon Session

New Delhi, Jul 28 (PTI) The ruling AAP is likely to raise the issue of farmers' protest during the two-day Monsoon Session of the Delhi Assembly beginning Thursday while the opposition BJP is set to corner the government over water supply and condition of DTC buses in the city.

The matter of the Delhi Police's proposal to appoint special prosecutors to argue cases related to violence during farmers protest on January 26 and last year's northeast Delhi riots is also likely to be raised by the AAP during the Assembly session, a leader of the ruling party said.

The Arvind Kejriwal government has stiffly resisted the lieutenant governor's recommendation and recently rejected the proposal of the Delhi police for special prosecutors. The LG has referred the matter to the President.

However, the Aam Aadmi Party's focus would be on the issue of farmers protesting the repeal of three contentious Central farm laws and a legal guarantee on minimum support price as the party is eyeing next year's Punjab Assembly polls. The AAP is the main opposition party in Punjab.

Farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have been protesting at Delhi border points -- Ghazipur, Singhu and Tikri -- since November last year.

"The farmers' issues will be the focus in the Assembly. Fixing the minimum support price of crops would be a major issue. Also, matters related to the ongoing farmers' protest would be raised," said a senior AAP leader.

The second part of the second session of the Seventh Legislative Assembly of National Capital Territory of Delhi will begin at 11 am on Thursday, an Assembly official has said.

The BJP has already declared that it would raise issues of public interest and demanded Speaker Ram Niwas Goel to extend the duration of the session to at least five days.

Leader of Opposition Ramvir Bidhuri on Tuesday said that the BJP MLAs have met Goel demanding a five-day Monsoon Session and sought his support for raising issues of public interest.

The legislators have given notices for discussions on important issues impacting the people of Delhi, he said.

The national capital is currently faced with a "severe" water crisis and "shortage" of schoolteachers, the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has an ageing bus fleet, due to "uncleaned" big drains there is waterlogging, and the city's healthcare system "failed" during the second Covid wave, Bidhuri said.

"These issues are very important and need urgent attention and we requested the speaker to allow discussions on such issues. We feel that all this cannot be taken up and discussed in a two-day session and therefore, requested the speaker to at least have five sittings during the Monsoon session," he said.

The BJP has eight MLAs in the 70-member Assembly dominated by the AAP that has 62 legislators.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)