Third session of Delhi Assembly closes after about 20 hours of debate

During the third session of the Eighth Delhi Assembly, which concluded Friday, the House held five sittings, spending a total of 19 hours and 40 minutes in deliberations covering legislative, financial and public welfare matters.

Addressing mediapersons, Speaker Vijender Gupta said the summons for the session were issued on July 28. He said 171 Special Mention notices were received under Rule 280, of which 62 matters were raised on the floor. These issues, spanning civic, administrative and policy concerns, have been referred to the relevant departments with instructions to provide replies within 30 days.

Three significant legislations were passed during the session. The Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill, 2025, introduced by Education Minister Ashish Sood, was discussed over two days with contributions from 24 members before being passed by voice vote. Two other bills — The Delhi Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2025 and The Delhi Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill, 2025, both introduced by Chief Minister and Finance Minister Rekha Gupta — were also passed by voice vote.

The House adopted congratulatory motions under Rule 114 to honour astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla for the mission to the International Space Station and to mark the launch of the NISAR satellite. Congratulations were extended to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, as well as the armed forces, security and intelligence agencies for the successful execution of Operation Sindoor and Operation Mahadev.

Two Calling Attention motions were taken up during the session — one concerning the reconstruction of a dilapidated hospital in Mustafabad, raised by Deputy Speaker Mohan Singh Bisht and responded to by Health Minister Pankaj Kumar Singh; the other on groundwater depletion and the water crisis in Delhi, raised by MLA Jitender Mahajan and addressed by Water Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh.

In a significant disclosure under Rule 271, the Speaker informed the House about the controversial “Faansi Ghar,” inaugurated in 2022 without historical evidence. He revealed Rs 1.04 crore had been spent on its construction, leading to the tampering of a heritage building and misleading the public. The Opposition, he noted, failed to produce authentic evidence supporting the project’s historical claims.

Gupta also recalled the Assembly’s legacy, highlighting Mahatma Gandhi’s three visits and contributions from leaders such as Vitthalbhai Patel, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal.

Several key papers and reports were laid on the table, including the Finance and Appropriation Accounts of the GNCTD for 2023-24, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports on finance, state accounts, and welfare of building and construction workers, alongside reports from the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission, Geospatial Delhi Ltd., Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and Dr BR Ambedkar University Delhi. The CAG report on construction workers’ welfare was referred to the Public Accounts Committee.

The Second Report of the Business Advisory Committee and the First Report of the Rules Committee were adopted during the session to ensure smooth legislative functioning.