Monsoon session of state pushed to August 3; plan to hold it online

The state government has decided to postpone the monsoon session of the legislature, scheduled for June 22 in Mumbai, to August 3, against the backdrop of the Covid-19

The state government has decided to postpone the monsoon session of the legislature, scheduled for June 22 in Mumbai, to August 3, against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown imposed to contain its spread.

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The legislature is also preparing for an online mechanism to enable members to participate from their constituencies in the remotest areas of the state.

A business advisory committee (BAC) which comprises chairman of the legislative Council Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar, speaker of the Assembly Nana Patole, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and leaders of opposition Devendra Fadnavis and Pravin Darekar, decided to postpone the session by six weeks in its meeting held on Wednesday. The session is likely to be held for two weeks.

Before that, the government may also call for a special session of a day to get supplementary demands passed, enabling expenditure on health care infrastructure amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The government expenditure needs approval of the legislature.

The government has, however, not yet decided if the monsoon session will be held online or will it be a hybrid seating arrangement.

The state legislature has, however, started preparations to hold the session online with a capacity of allowing 1,000 people to participate at a time. The legislature administration held presentations of at least five software companies over the past few days.

“We have taken presentations from leading players providing videoconference platforms. Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Blue Jeans, Alcatel have shown interest in providing high-end platforms for such an online session. The platform will have facility of even voting on any motion if need be. The legislators will be able to participate from the remotest areas of the state or even by using video-conference facilities at district headquarters. Our system will be user-friendly, enabling legislators to participate using their smartphones,” said an official from the state legislature.

The officer said that they expect the platform to incur much less expenditure than spent when the sessions are typically held with the physical presence of all members. He said that the total expenditure would not be more than ₹4 lakh, including the additional workforce needed to be engaged for it.

The decision about the form in which the session needs to be conducted is expected to be taken next month. “It all depends on the pandemic situation by the end of July. If it is well in control, we may allow the members to participate physically, or otherwise only ministers and officials with mandatory physical presence will only be allowed to attend it personally. Others will be asked to participate online. Next meeting is expected to be held in the last week of July to take a decision over it,” an official from CMO said.

Leader of Opposition in legislative Assembly and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis suggested to hold a day-long session to get supplementary demands passed in the wake of the rising expenditure on the pandemic.