Monsoon Session of Parliament begins today amid Covid-19: 10 points

• A total of 47 items have been identified for being taken up during the Monsoon Session 2020
• This will be the first Parliament session being held amid the COVID-19 pandemic

New Delhi: The Monsoon session of Parliament is set to begin today amid the coronavirus pandemic. The 18-day Parliament session is scheduled to be held between September 14 and October 1. Monsoon session in Parliament is usually around mid-July. This year it got deferred after Covid-19 cases in India showed an upward trend. India’s Covid-19 tally on Sunday breached 47 lakh mark after 94,372 people across the country tested positive for the viral contagion in the last 24 hours.

1) 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).

2) A total of 47 items have been identified for being taken up during the Monsoon Session 2020. (These include 45 Bills and two financial items).

3) This will be the first Parliament session being held amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore all safety measures have been taken to conduct the session as per guidelines issued for COVID-19.

4) Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Sunday has sent a safety COVID-19 kit along with a letter to all the parliamentarians amid the pandemic.

5) MPs will be given packed food in the canteen during the Monsoon session. In this context, a menu has been issued from the canteen of the Parliament. As per the menu, there will be different types of packed breakfast in the canteen for the MPs.At the same time, they will be able to get 4 categories of packed lunch, which include vegetarian food, South Indian, non-vegetarian, and combo meal. In addition, hygiene will be taken care of in the canteen.

6) 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.

7) On the first day, only i.e. on September 14, of the Lok Sabha will meet in the morning session.

8) 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 mobile app for registering of MPs' attendance and seats separated with poly-carbon sheets in the House.

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

10) The Opposition will push for debate on economy, the India-China border conflict and Covid-19 management, to corner the government.