Ways are being explored to find a solution for the monsoon session of the Parliament. Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha speaker Venkaiah Naidu accessed the situation in order to come out to a possible solution.
As per the reports of the secretaries-general all options have been considered for holding the sessions of the houses including the assessment of central hall and galleries. The reports said that while Rajya Sabha can accomodate about 60 members as per the social distancing norms, the central hall and Lok Sabha is adequate just for around 100 members.
While discussions on Central Hall and plenary hall were conducted, some limitations were also sought off about it, including the non-availability of AC during day in Central Hall and problems of simultaneous interpretation services.
With average age of Lok Sabha member to be around 54 and that of Rajya Sabha to be around 63 years, many parliamentarians are worried that the end result will some of them falling sick, perhaps seriously.
On one hand, where countries like Canada, which is divided into six time zones, have started virtual parliamentary proceedings via zoom, both Naidu and Birla directed the officials to check the possibility of virtual participation of members in house proceedings including the maximum availability of such virtual participants and the feasibility of such virtual meetings as per the rules of the houses.
As per the laws, any changes in the way of proceedings of such meetings require a motion to be carried out in both the houses, it is to be seen how things work with India facing serious concerns internally in the form of economy and externally in the form of India-China standoff.
