Rajya Sabha MPS can now sit in LS galleries
Staggered seating, device to kill germs and 10 large screens as Parliament readies for Monsoon session
Members of Parliament (MPS) storming the Well of the House, raising placards, shouting slogans, and generally disrupting proceedings to mark their protest could now become a thing of the past.
The Monsoon session of the two Houses of Parliament, set to meet in the third week of August amid the Covid-19 crisis, will have such complex seating arrangements that it will be well near impossible for MPS to band together in the Well and disturb proceedings. For the first time since 1952, when Parliament first met, chambers and galleries of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha will be used for seating members to ensure social distancing. Both Houses will have polycarbonate sheets separating the official gallery from the chamber of the House. In the Rajya Sabha, 60 members will be seated in the chamber and 51 in the galleries (leaving out the first row) and the remaining 132 (including two seats going to by-polls) in the chamber of the Lok Sabha. In other words, members of the Rajya Sabha will debate matters in their House while sitting in Lok Sabha galleries.
According to Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice-president Venkaiah Naidu’s office, four large display screens of 85 inch each in the chamber and another six of 40 inch each in the four galleries of the House are being installed to enable members to
watch the proceedings conveniently. All the seats in the galleries will be fitted with consoles to enable participation of members in the proceedings of the House from their seats. Placards will indicate the parties accommodated in each gallery of the Rajya Sabha.
Special cables are being laid connecting the two Houses for transmitting audio-visual signals of the proceedings both ways to enable real-time participation of members seated in the two Houses.
Seats will be earmarked for the prime minister, leader of the house, leader of the Opposition, and leaders of other parties. Former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and H D Deve Gowda, besides Union ministers Ramvilas Paswan and Ramdas Atshawale, will also have earmarked seats in the chamber of the House. Other ministers will be in the seats meant for the ruling party.
Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation
system in the air conditioning system of Rajya Sabha for killing the bacteria and virus in air supply is expected to be put in place.
It is not known if the Central Hall, where a large number of MPS and others congregate when they want to take time off from debates, will be open. The Central Hall is a huge hall capable of accommodating members of both Houses.
Every inch of available space will be used to seat MPS, even if space is on the first floor of the circular Parliament building.
In the past several sessions, Parliament has shown a high degree of conscientiousness about its work: There have been disturbances but both Houses have sat beyond hours to complete business.
This time, the Monsoon session is expected to show the same degree of alacrity on the part of MPS: With no enforcement from the presiding officers.