VP Naidu, LS Speaker review preparations ahead of Budget Session

By Payal Mehta
New Delhi [India], January 30 : Shortly after isolation and recovery from COVID, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday held a meeting with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in the presence of senior officials of Lok Sabha as well as Rajya Sabha Secretariat on the preparations for the Budget session of Parliament which gets underway from Monday.
The meeting which took place at the official residence of the Vice President went on for about 40 minutes.
In view of the ongoing third wave of Covid, arrangements have been made keeping social distancing in mind and Parliament timing for both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are staggered.
The Rajya Sabha will function from 10 am to 3 pm, whereas the Lok Sabha will function from 4 pm to 9 pm except for the first two days when on Monday, the President of India will address both houses and on Tuesday when the Union Budget will be presented.
In today's meeting, as per the sources, the Lok Sabha Speaker suggested that Members of both the Houses may be seated at different locations by name to avoid confusion, crowding and enquiries. This was welcomed by Naidu.
Secretary-Generals of both the Houses were accordingly asked to reach out to leaders of various parties and groups in respective Houses immediately and to suggest them to draw lists of names of Members of respective parties to be seated in different locations.
Seats were allotted in chambers and galleries of both the Houses based on the strength of parties.
Keeping the staggered timings of both Houses and subsequent reduction in time available for conducting of business custodians in view, as per sources, the need to seek better cooperation from all sections of the political spectrum and optimum utilisation of the available time was reiterated.

The sources also said that Secretary-Generals of both the Houses have informed that the Parliament House has followed all possible Covid protocols including sanitisation of the premises.
Birla and Naidu were also informed by the officials that all MPs have been requested to take an RT-PCR test 48 hours before the commencement of the session.
Sources further added that if anybody had tested positive or a family member was positive, post a 7 day isolation period, as per the guidelines of the Union Health Ministry, there was no need to undertake any further Covid test.
The Budget Session of Parliament gets underway on January 31 and will continue till February 11.
The second part of the session will again resume on March 14 and will continue till April 8.