CM and speaker inspect assembly building; members and officials to produce Covid-19 negative report to participate in proceedings.
Amid the speculations over the fate of the upcoming monsoon session of Uttarakhand assembly, the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and speaker Premchand Agarwal inspected the assembly building in Dehradun on Wednesday. The duo explored the possibilities of holding the session while following the social distancing norms for the prevailing pandemic of Covid-19.They also inspected the arrangements for the members who can opt to attend the session by virtual means. After the inspection, the speaker said that given the space constraint, the galleries for media, guests and others would be used in the seating plan for the members. He said that the assembly hall can accommodate 47 members while others would be seated in the galleries. The speaker further said that the members above 65 years of age would be requested to attend the session virtually. Incidentally there are 12 such members who are above 65 years of age. He said that in fact all the members of the house would be given an option to attend the session virtually. He claimed that arrangements for making the members attend the session virtually have been set in place. The speaker added that all the members would have to get them tested for Covid-19 before entering the session. “Arrangements for testing would be made for the members at MLA hostel or some other place. Similarly all the employees and officers too would be tested before the session,’’ he said.
The speaker expressed confidence that the monsoon session would be held successfully while following the norms of pandemic. He made it clear that the question hour would be held during the session days. The assembly secretariat has so far received more than 1000 questions for the session.
The three day monsoon session of the Uttarakhand assembly is slated to start from September 23. Considering the fact that the parliamentary affairs minister Madan Kaushik and some of the MLAs are suffering from Covid-19, the organisation of the session is a challenge for the authorities concerned.
Thursday, 10 September 2020 | PNS | Dehradun
