Parliament’s Monsoon Session likely in Sept

Parliament is set to hold the Monsoon Session by the first week of September, sources said after Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu held a meeting on Friday to assess preparedness.

According to sources, to ensure social distancing, the Rajya Sabha will seat 127 of its 245 MPS in its chambers, including in its visitors’ and public galleries. The rest would be able to join virtually from either of the two bigger halls — either the Central Hall or the

GMC Balayogi Auditorium.

Similarly, the Lok Sabha will seat at least half of its 543 MPS in its chambers, and utilise its public galleries and visitors’ galleries to ensure social distancing for these MPS. The rest of the MPS can join virtually from either of the two other halls.

Sources said the decision is yet to be taken on which of the two Houses will utilise the Central Hall, and the other can then use the GMC Balayogi Auditorium located in the Parliament Library building.

According to constitutional provisions, there cannot be a gap of more than six months between two sittings of Parliament. The Budget Session was truncated because of the spread of Covid-19 on March 23, and the next Session needs to begin by third week of September.

The Rajya Sabha chairman held an hour-long meeting with senior officials.

Sources said limited virtual participation of MPS is being considered in view of the capacity constraints of NIC (National Informatics Centre) at present to enable such virtual participation of all MPS. The NIC provides cyber infrastructure for the government. Currently, the

NIC can provide only 500 dedicated lines in Parliament.

Naidu stressed the need to upscale capacities for larger virtual Parliament in due course, sources said. He suggested that the effort shall be to enable participation of the members in the proceedings from within the House to the extent possible.

For seating Rajya Sabha MPS, all its galleries, except the media gallery, would be utilised for seating them. Seating of media persons in the media gallery would also be in conformity with the physical distancing norm for which guidelines would be evolved.