All MPs will need a Covid-negative certificate to be able to attend the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament and have been advised to either get the RT-PCR tests done in their constituencies or take the rapid antigen test at the special counters set up in the Parliament House.
Only those members who have Covid-negative certificates or whose rapid antigen test comes clear will be allowed to proceed for the session. In case a member tests negative, but is symptomatic, he/she will have to take the RT-PCR test and go into home isolation while awaiting the result. Those testing positive will be reported and sent to institutional isolation or hospitalised as decided by the doctors.
Family and staff members of MPs have also been advised to get themselves tested. Meanwhile, all officers and staff of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats, too, have to take the Covid-19 test mandatorily in preparation for the session beginning on September 14. Arrangements have been made for testing personnel attached to the Lok Sabha secretariat on Saturday.
Besides the secretariat staff, all others working in the sprawling complex will be tested. This includes employees of the Central Public Works Department, the State Bank of India, NDMC, Railway Reservation Counter, Air India, Post Office and Railway Catering Unit.
Similar instructions are also likely to go out to the media and officials accompanying ministers during the session, sources privy to the planning told The Telegraph.
Meanwhile, after the row over the scrapping of Question Hour for this session, the government has decided to allow un-starred questions that Trinamul Congress leader in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien, likened to “throwing crumbs” as it still avoids direct questioning.
Unlike starred questions that are replied to on the floor of the House by the ministers concerned followed by supplementary questions which, too, are answered, un-starred questions only get written replies that are laid on the table of the House. Time is never allotted for un-starred questions.
It is not just MPs who are disappointed by the government’s refusal to reconsider the suspension of Question Hour. Signature campaigns launched by concerned citizens have found considerable traction and one such letter to the presiding officers of the two Houses noted that several state Assemblies that held their sessions through the pandemic did not suspend Question Hour.
“If the state Assembles can put sufficient precautions in place to ensure smooth functioning of the House without suspension of any procedures, then Parliament ought to as well,’’ the letter pointed out; adding that India was not in the league of nations that quickly adapted to the pandemic and enabled virtual Parliament sessions, complete with Question Hours.