Venkaiah Naidu, Om Birla hold meet over House panels’ functioning

At least three Congress leaders, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Shashi Tharoor and Anand Sharma have sought permission from Naidu or Birla for holding their meetings online.

Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla met on Thursday to look at options to allow online meetings for Parliament committees, amid growing demand from Congress leaders for resumption of such meetings.

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu meets Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla at his residence in New Delhi on Thursday. (ANI Photo)

The two Houses will closely follow the government’s decisions on resumption of flights for general people before a roadmap for such meetings is decided. Naidu and Birla felt that “if the situation does not allow regular conventional meetings of the Committees in the near future, alternative means of enabling such meetings may be explored,” said an official release.

At least three Congress leaders, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Shashi Tharoor and Anand Sharma have sought permission from Naidu or Birla for holding their meetings online.

At the meeting between Birla and Naidu, held at the latter’s residence, the feasibility of holding such meetings was discussed and accordingly, they directed “the Secretaries General of both the Houses to examine in detail the pros and cons of Parliamentary Committees holding meetings by video conferencing”, a release said.