COURTESY HT AUG 4

House session likely to get pushed to September
Saubhadra Chatterji

letters@hindustantimes.com

New Delhi : A September schedule is starting to look more likely for the much-awaited monsoon session of Parliament as the chances of safely starting proceedings in August appear to be thinning due to the continued rise in Covid-19 cases in India, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

India’s top legislative authorities, including Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, are keeping a close watch on the status of the pandemic in the Capital and elsewhere to finalise the dates for the session. An improvement in Delhi in recent weeks offers a glimmer of hope, but greater progress in the Capital’s fight against Covid-19, and some measure of control in other parts of the country may be needed to ensure suitable attendance by members, the people cited above indicated.

Under the Indian Constitution, the duration between the end of one session and the start of the next cannot exceed six months. So, Parliament has a window till September 23 to start the monsoon session, after the budget session ended on March 23, two days before a 68-day national lockdown kicked in.

Once the dates are finalised, officials involved in the planning of the session say they would require at least four weeks to put the arrangements in place. “Monsoon session in August looks very tight. Both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats have discussed a couple of seating options with the government. A final view on them is yet to be taken. Once the Union Cabinet decides, it will take about four weeks to put in place necessary arrangements,” said an official.

Logistical issues are challenge because scheduling the session will require special Covid-19 arrangements -- from the seating of MPs to ensure social distancing , to the timing of the proceedings in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha