Tradition routines set to return in Parliament

New Delhi: Parliament’s upcoming monsoon session will return to its traditional routine in terms of working hours and seating after more than a year of makeshift arrangements to ensure Covid-19 guidelines, including social distancing, with public galleries being used to accommodate MPs and the two houses working in shifts over the last two sessions

New Delhi: Parliament’s upcoming monsoon session will return to its traditional routine in terms of working hours and seating after more than a year of makeshift arrangements to ensure Covid-19 guidelines, including social distancing, with public galleries being used to accommodate MPs and the two houses working in shifts over the last two sessions.

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A bulletin issued by the Lok Sabha secretariat on Saturday said that the House will meet daily from 11am to 6pm with an hour of lunch break.

The bulletin also urged the MPs to ask questions pertaining to the specific ministry to the respective minister. “It has been observed that sometimes Members raise two or more different and unrelated subjects, involving more than one Ministry/Department in one notice of question. This causes administrative inconvenience to the Ministry/Department. Accordingly, Members are requested to address their notices of questions appropriately to one Ministry/Department only,” said the bulletin.

In the last two sessions, the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha opted for staggered shifts in a bid to give maximum protection to MPs and to adhere to Covid-19 norms. The Upper House sat every morning, while the Lower House began its proceedings only in the afternoon, two hours after the Rajya Sabha finished the day’s business.

The normal schedule for the upcoming session will entail MPs sitting in their respective seats in the session, according to people aware of the details. The staggered seating arrangement also meant that the lawmakers could not caste votes on bills or debates through the electronic system and had to resort to paper slips.

At least 40 bills and five ordinances are awaiting Parliament’s approval and the upcoming session can give the government enough room to push some of its key bills, while the Opposition, too, can demand discussion on issues such as the economic situation, the vaccination policy or spiralling fuel prices.