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Covid-19: Trinamool will not send MPs to Parliament after Monday
The Trinamool’s top brass plans to skip the Budget session when the government and the Opposition parties are set to have a fresh discussion on Monday morning over the latter’s demand for early curtailment of the ongoing session.
The Trinamool Congress, the second largest opposition party in Parliament, will not send its members of Parliament (MPs) to the two Houses after Monday, party leaders said on Sunday.
“Our chief minister believes that in this hour of crisis, elected lawmakers must extensively tour their constituencies and raise awareness against novel coronavirus (Covid-19). She thinks it is more important for MPs to stay in their constituency than attending Parliament at this moment,” said Trinamool’s Lok Sabha floor leaders Sudip Bandopadhyay and Derek O’Brien in a letter. HT has seen the letter.
The Budget session is scheduled to conclude on April 3.
The Trinamool’s top brass plans to skip the Budget session when the government and the Opposition parties are set to have a fresh discussion on Monday morning over the latter’s demand for early curtailment of the ongoing session.
The Finance Bill, 2020, has been listed for passage in the Lok Sabha on Monday. Last week, it was dropped from the list and four other bills were added in the government’s agenda.
The passage of the finance bill is the last step of getting Parliament’s approval for the budget, which is a mandatory step for the government.
The finance bill may see a few Trinamool leaders present in the House to put forth the party’s viewpoints on the budget.
The party’s Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’Brien has gone on self-isolation after he sat right next to BJP lawmaker Dushyant Singh, who met Covid-19 positive Kanika Kapoor at a party, in a meeting.
A key official told HT on condition of anonymity that parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Saturday afternoon and their discussions centred on the Opposition’s demand over curtailing the session in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.
“The Speaker will talk to the opposition leaders and government managers on Monday. There is a possibility that the government may have a rethink about the continuation of the ongoing budget session,” said a senior official.
Another official added that neither any formal order nor any file has been moved so far, indicating that any decision, if at all taken, will happen only after the discussions on Monday.
Opposition leaders cutting across political lines have been demanding that the session should end as a large gathering in Parliament goes against the health advisories issued by the government itself.
