Our Bureau

Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu held a meeting of Rajya Sabha officials on possibilities of convening the winter session of Parliament while ensuring precautions in the backdrop of the pandemic.

Sources privy to the development said the Upper House may meet with limited virtual participation of MPs, which otherwise used to be held in the month of July. As per the present plan, only 127, about half of the total strength, would be accommodated inside the Rajya Sabha Chamber and its galleries.

Opposition has been demanding the Centre to hold a session of Parliament in a form suitable for everyone, or schedule meetings of standing committees. But the Centre had not responded to the suggestion.

Rajya Sabha Secretary General Desh Deepak Verma and other top officials were present in the meeting. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has been approached to workout a platform for virtual participation of the members. Naidu has asked the officials to prepare a detailed plan after looking into various pros and cons by next week. He suggested that the effort shall be to enable participation of the members in the proceedings from within the House to the extent possible through appropriate planning. Apart from the Chamber, all the galleries except the media gallery would be utilised for seating the members. Sources said the seating of media persons in the media gallery would also be in conformity with the physical distancing norm according to the present plan.

The meeting also discussed issues relating to taking up of Question Hour, voting in the House if required, administering oath/affirmation to the newly elected members, detailed planning for transportation of members, effective measures for physical distancing and sanitisation.

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