Delhi Assembly set to meet with 2 changes in its proceedings

New Delhi, March 7 : The annual Budget session of the Delhi government is set to commence on Monday with two key changes to be introduced for the very first time in its proceedings since 1993.
First, the entire Assembly session will be held for the full day, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., instead of its traditional time from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. And second, the session will be held without any ‘Question Hour’.
While the Assembly sessions in many other states are full-day affairs from the morning to the evening, the Delhi Assembly since its inception in 1993 has been conducting the proceedings between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
According to former Delhi Assembly Secretary S.K. Sharma, after the first Assembly elections in Delhi in 1993, the Delhi Council of Ministers led by then Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana had presented the first ever Budget of an elected government in Delhi, fixing the session timing between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. It has become a tradition since then.
Sharma said: “Although several special sessions (emergency sessions) have been held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on special occasions, the entire Delhi Assembly has never functioned for a full-day. It will be a first if the Budget session is held between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. from Monday onwards.
“After the elections in 1993, Charti Lal Goel, the first Speaker of Delhi Assembly, had invited the elected Council of Ministers to present the annual Budget in the morning. However, Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana made a request to change the timing of the proceedings, following which it was fixed from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. It has become a tradition since then.”