As Budget Session’s first half records near-zero Covid cases, House hopes for better attendance
NEW DELHI: The first half of the budget session of Parliament showed signs of normalcy return on the health front. Covid-19 cases in parliament, among lawmakers and officials, dropped to near-zero — an encouraging trend for the two Houses.
According to officials involved in the management of Covid-19 in Parliament, as many as 4,700 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests, known as the gold standard for diagnosis of the viral disease, were conducted on MPS, officials, media and security personnel before the session started on January 29.
“Out of the 4,700 tests, only three MPS tested positive. All others results were negative,” an official said, requesting anonymity
The results, officials added, were in sync with a sharp drop in number of active cases in India. The country reported only
13,082 new positive cases on January 29, the day the budget session started, a steep fall from 86,508 new cases on September 23 when the monsoon session was cut short by eight days. The first half of the budget session ended on Tuesday.
Apart from 888 lawmakers in the two Houses, Parliament has more than 4,000 officials and staff. It also houses a large force of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to enforce security.
Since mid-january, a large number of construction workers have also been present in the complex for building the new parliament house.
More MPS felt safe enought to attend House proceedings and join meetings of various parliamentary committees. The House panels were plagued by low attendance for a large part of 2020 as many MPS, who live outside Delhi, were reluctant to fly down to the national capital amid soaring a surge in Covid-19 cases.
Officials added that in the past few months, attendance in parliamentary panel meetings had improved vastly from last year For l lack of quorum, many meetings were cancelled at the last minute, resulting in loss of time and public money.
The next half of the session is scheduled to start from March 8 and officials added that another round of RT-CPR tests would be conducted before it starts. They also added that health safety protocols, including social distancing, dispersed seating arrangements and mandatory use of masks shall continue until the union health ministry officially declares that the pandemic is over.