Uttarakhand Assembly curtailed to one day, no question hour

The three-day assembly session was scheduled to start from September 23 ut will now be held only for a day.

After Uttarakhand assembly Speaker, leader of Opposition and many MLAs tested positive for Covid-19, the Business Advisory Committee of the legislative assembly, which met here on Sunday evening, decided to curtail the assembly session from three days to one day, with no question hour.

Uttarakhand assembly building(FILE PHOTO)

The three-day assembly session was scheduled to start from September 23.

Madan Kaushik, cabinet minister and MLA from Haridwar said during the meeting it was decided that as many MLAs and Speaker of the House have tested positive and cases in the state are soaring, the three-day session be curtailed to one day with no question hour.

Kaushik said arrangements have also been made for virtual participation of the MLAs in the assembly proceedings if they don’t want to attend the session physically.

“We have made arrangements for the virtual participation from the districts through NIC (National Informatics Centre). The aim is to ensure the safety of the MLAs at a time when the Covid cases are spiking in the state and many legislators have already tested positive, including the Speaker”, he said.

Kaushik said in case of MLAs who will be attending the session physically, they will have to go through the RT-PCR test first.

“In 71-member assembly, we have made arrangements for ensuring social distancing during the one-day session. In the main assembly hall, 30 MLAs can attend the session. Ten MLAs can attend the session from the gallery while 30 MLAs can attend the session from hall number 107 where arrangements for virtual participation have been made,” he said.

“Also, 18 to 19 ordinances that have been promulgated by the state government, would be tabled in the House for approval,” he said.

Raghunath Singh Chauhan, deputy speaker of the Uttarakhand assembly said during the meeting Congress MLAs said they would seek adjournment motions so that debate could be held on four important issues that include unemployment, law and order situation, Covid pandemic and inflation in the state.

Speaker Premchand Aggarwal tested positive for Covid-19 in the antigen test on Sunday afternoon, a day after the leader of Opposition Indira Hridayesh tested positive for the virus.

Uttarakhand has so far reported over 40,000 Covid-19 positive cases and a death toll of 478. On Saturday, the state recorded the biggest single-day spike in fresh Covid-19 cases with 2,078 cases, taking the positivity rate in the state to over 7 %.