Covid cloud may end session by Wednesday
NEW DELHI: Parliament’s monsoon session may end as early as on September 23, eight days ahead of its schedule, after many political parties agreed to cut it short amid a rising number of Covid-19 cases linked to the Parliament House complex.
So far, two Union ministers, 30 MPs and several House officials have tested positive for Covid-19, posing a serious challenge on the ongoing session schedule despite the health safety makeovers. Both ministers attended some days of the session that started Monday.
At Saturday’s meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC), a panel that decides the weekly agenda of the House, the government’s floor managers said they had no objections to cut short the session but wanted 20 laws — including the ratification of 11 ordinances — to be cleared. It had previously shortlisted 14 bills for the week amid talks of shortening the session at the BAC meeting, and furnished a list of another 6 bills.
So far, nine out of 20 bills have been cleared by the Lok Sabha and five have been approved by both Houses. Now, amidst the push to cut short the session, more bills might be cleared without long debates, two opposition leaders said.
As India faced the first wave of Covid-19 cases, the budget session of Parliament was cut short on March 23. Two days later, a sweeping federal lockdown that eventually lasted 68 days kicked in. As Covid cases kept increasing, particularly in Delhi, the monsoon session was deferred by two months from its usual mid-July start. It finally started from September 14; the Indian Constitution makes it mandatory to start a session within six months of the previous one.
At Saturday’s meeting, parliamentary affairs minister Prahlad Joshi listed the three labour codes — on social security, industrial relations and occupation safety — FCRA amendments, J&K official languages bill and The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Bill for passage.