Parliament's Monsoon Session: TMC's Dinesh Trivedi, JMM leader Shibu Soren, others take oath as Rajya Sabha members

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) veteran Shibu Soren, former Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi along with several others took oath as Rajya Sabha members on Monday during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) veteran Shibu Soren, former Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi along with several others took oath as Rajya Sabha members on Monday during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

Besides Soren and Trivedi, TMC`s Arpita Ghosh, BJP`s Syed Zafar Islam and Jai Prakash Nishad, independent leader Ajeet Kumar Bhuyan, Congress leader Phoolo Devi Netam, LJD`s M.V. Shreyams Kumar, NCP`s Fauzia Khan, NPP`s Wenverai Kharlukhi, DMK`s NR Elango, and Anithyar P. Selvarasu, TRS` K. Keshav Rao and K.R. Suresh Reddy took the oath.

Soon after the oath-taking ceremony, the upper house of Parliament also paid condolences to former President Pranab Mukherjee and 18 sitting and former MPs, including Amar Singh - all of whom passed away recently.

The monsoon session 2020 of the Parliament, which commenced today, was the first Parliament session held amid the COVID-19 pandemic. All safety measures had been initiated to conduct the session as per health guidelines amid COVID-19.

Ahead of the commencement of the monsoon session of Parliament, sanitisation work was underway at Parliament premises.

Workers at the premises were seen disinfecting the area by spraying sanitisers outside the building, as a precautionary measure in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. All safety measures had been taken to conduct the session as per guidelines issued for COVID-19.

According to a press release from the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, the session will provide a total of 18 sittings spread over a period of 18 days (all the days including Saturdays and Sundays of the ensuing session will be working days) and a total of 47 items have been identified for being taken up during the Monsoon Session 2020 (including 45 Bills and two financial items).

All safety measures have been taken to conduct the session as per guidelines issued for COVID-19.

There will be a four-hour session for each House each day (9 am to 1 pm for Rajya Sabha and 3 pm to 7 pm for Lok Sabha.

The session will see other measures like seating MPs in a staggered way in chambers of both Houses, as well as galleries to maintain physical distancing norms, the introduction of a mobile app for registering of MPs` attendance, and seats separated with poly-carbon sheets in the House.

The Zero Hour will be there and the un-starred questions will be laid on the table.

(With agency inputs)