E-Paper
MP assembly session truncated to one day; minimum number of MLAs to attend
Decisions regarding the assembly session, to begin on September 21, were taken in all party-meet held on the state assembly premises on Tuesday
The Madhya Pradesh assembly’s three-day monsoon session, scheduled to begin from September 21, will now be truncated to a day and there will be minimum number of MLAs required for the quorum in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. The decisions regarding the session were taken in all-party meeting held on the state assembly premises on Tuesday.
It was also decided that since all the members of the House will not take part in the proceedings, election to the posts of speaker and deputy speaker be deferred till the next session of the House, as per state assembly secretariat.
The all-party meeting was attended by protem speaker Rameshwar Sharma, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and leader of opposition in the state assembly Kamal Nath and parliamentary affairs minister Narottam Mishra among others. The meeting took a serious note of Congress MLA Govardhan Dangi’s death due to Covid and a good number of lawmakers, including ministers, being infected by the virus in the state, as per the state assembly secretariat.
“In view of the Covid situation, the state assembly’s session will now be held just for one day on September 21. Since it will be difficult to maintain social distancing among legislators during the proceedings, it was also decided that the ruling party and the Opposition both will select a minimum number of legislators to attend the proceedings in view of quorum of the House,” said protem speaker Rameshwar Sharma.
As per the decisions taken in the meeting, there will be no Question Hour, calling attention motion or zero hour during the one-day proceedings. Written answers will be sent to the MLAs to their questions and calling attention motions. Only financial and legislative business, like bills, budgets and ordinances will be taken up, as per the protem speaker.
State assembly principal secretary AP Singh said, “The MLAs who attend the proceedings have been requested to come with their drivers only. All the arrangements for sanitisation have been made on the assembly premises. Health department teams will assist the legislators in conducting Covid tests, if required, while the state assembly secretariat staff is already undergoing Covid-19 tests as just five days are left for the session.”
Another official of the state secretariat who didn’t wish to be named said, “The health department teams will ask the legislators to declare in a form before they attend the House proceedings whether they or any member of their families came in contact with any Covid patient and if any of them had any symptom of Covid in the past 7 days. Rapid antigen tests too will be conducted. Any MLA who replies in the affirmative and if he tests positive for coronavirus will not be allowed to attend the proceedings. ”
