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Members demand curtailing of session as Rajya Sabha steps up coronavirus screening
Thermal scanning for recording body temperature was conducted in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday as the House stepped up coronavirus monitoring.
Stepping up efforts to check the spread of coronavirus, thermal scanning for recording body temperature is being conducted in Parliament. Rajya Sabha chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu also underwent the scan on Wednesday.
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According to officials, Naidu was scanned for temperature by a security person with contactless infrared thermal scanner and his body temperature was found normal. “He (Naidu) was not in favour of being photographed while scanning, but the secretariat officials convinced him to do that pointing out that the Vice President submitting himself to such scanning will send a right message to public whose cooperation is necessary in containing spread of virus,” said an official.
Naidu later told the Upper House that all arrangements have been made to sanitise the complex and hand santisiers have also been provided for MPs.
When the House convened, some members were seen wearing masks, and refused to take them off after Naidu said Members cannot sit inside with covered faces. Congress MP P Chidambaram said it should be left to the judgement of individual members as they may feel vulnerable enough to wear face masks.
Naidu accepted his argument but said the House was setting a precedent. If members feel vulnerable, they can make preventive arrangements, he said, adding, it was upto the members to take a call.
Congress MP MV Rajeev Gowda urged the government to either curtail or defer the ongoing budget session, and fellow parliamentarian Anand Sharma said the government was preaching social distancing but is not following it in Parliament.
Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, however, said Parliament should not show panic by adjourning early and instead show the fighting spirit.
