Parliament steps up efforts, checks legislators to contain virus spread
NEWDELHI: Parliament stepped up its efforts to contain the spread of novel coronavirus (Covid-19), including thermal scanning for Members of Parliament (MPs), officials and visitors in the complex. Rajya Sabha chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu also underwent the scan on Wednesday.
A Lok Sabha MP, who was detected with higher than normal body temperature, returned home in the morning.
According to at least three Opposition leaders, the Opposition MP claimed that she didn’t have fever when a House official told her about her high temperature at the entry gate in the morning. The MP claimed that she had used hot water to wash her face and that caused the temperature on her face to rise.
The official requested that she consult doctors available in the House complex; the MP replied that she was a doctor herself.
The MP left Parliament without attending the day’s proceedings. According to her party colleagues, she returned to her home town. This is the first time that an MP returned home because of higher than normal body temperature in the ongoing session.
Another Opposition MP, Trinamool Congress’s Mimi Chakraborty, is set to return from London. Officials indicated that if she arrives in India, as per the protocol, she will be asked to be in self isolation at home for a fortnight.
Officials added that Naidu was scanned by a security person with an infrared thermal scanner and his body temperature was found normal.
“He [Naidu] was not in favour of being photographed while being scanned, but the secretariat officials convinced him. They pointed out that the vice-president submitting himself to scanning will send a right message to the public...,” said an official.
Naidu later told the House that all arrangements have been made to sanitise the complex and hand sanitisers have also been provided for MPs. When the House convened, some members were wearing masks, and refused to take them off after Naidu said members cannot sit inside with covered faces.
Congress MP P Chidambaram said it should be left to the judgement of individual members as they may feel vulnerable enough to wear masks. Naidu accepted his argument but said if members feel vulnerable, they can make preventive arrangements, he said, adding, it was up to the members to take a call.
Congress MPs MV Rajeev Gowda urged the government to either curtail or defer the ongoing Budget session, and Anand Sharma said the government was preaching social distancing but is not following it in Parliament.
Minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, however, said Parliament should not show panic by adjourning early. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla took a series of meetings with top officials on the preparedness of tackling the coronavirus outbreak.