Govt to hold special Assembly session on corona

NEW DELHI: On Friday, the Delhi government will convene a special session of the Assembly to discuss the idea of a pan-india National Register of Citizen (NRC) and the state’s preparedness to control the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus, a senior official said on Wednesday.

The decision to convene the special session was taken in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, headed by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, said the official.

This, even as the government is yet to announce dates for the Assembly’s Budget session. Another senior official said that the Budget session is likely to be convened around the last week of March.

So far, four cases of the virus — named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-COV-2) — have surfaced in Delhi. All four had travelled to affected countries, which include Italy and Thailand.

After a joint meeting with Union health minister Harsh Vardhan earlier this week, Kejriwal had said that his government will cooperate with the Centre to contain the potential spread of SARS-COV-2– with more than 40 cases reported across several states in India. Kejriwal had on Sunday directed all public buses, metro trains and hospitals to be sanitised in periodic intervals daily.

When it comes to NRC, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is yet to take a clear stand on the issue. But the party had voted against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in both Lok Sabha (where it has one member) and Rajya Sabha (where it has three members). Both Houses passed the Bill, which later became law. During campaigns ahead of assembly elections in Delhi, Kejriwal had criticised the amended citizenship law.