Monsoon Session Begins In Lok Sabha Adhering To COVID-19 Protocols

New Delhi: The Monsoon Session began on Monday with the Lok Sabha holding its first session with obituary references to 15 parliamentarians who passed away this year.

As soon as the House assembled for the first time since the Coronavirus outbreak, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla paid glowing tributes to the departed leaders and security personnel who have laid down their lives while protecting the nation since March.

Birla also remembered "Corona warriors" like doctors, nurses, sanitation workers, police personnel and voluntary workers who died while fighting the pandemic.

The speaker then adjourned the House for an hour, after about 20 minutes of business.

Speaker Om Birla read out the obituary references in memory of the departed lawmakers that included former President Pranab Mukherjee, who passed away here on August 31 after undergoing treatment for nearly three weeks.

The House, which began at 9 a.m., also remembered sitting MP H. Vasanthakumar, eminent vocalist Pandit Jasraj; Gurdas Singh Badal (Member, 5th Lok Sabha); Nepal Singh (MP, 16th Lok Sabha); Ajit Jogi (MP, 12th and 14th Lok Sabhas); P. Namgyal (7th, 8th, 11th); and Paras Nath Yadav (MP, 12th and 14th).

Besides, Madhav Rao Patil (12 Lok Sabha member); Haribhau Madhav Jawale (14th and 15th); Saroj Dubey (10th); Lalji Tandon (15th); Kamal Rani (11 and 12th); Chetan Chauhan (10 and 12th); and Surendra Prakash Goel (14th) were also remembered by all parliamentarians.

The Lok Sabha observed a 2-minute silence to honour the parliamentarians, following which the Speaker adjourned the house for an hour.

There will be 36 Parliamentary sittings -- 18 each for both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha -- in the Monsoon Session which will continue till October 1.

The first-of-its-kind Monsoon session saw members sporting masks while attending the proceedings.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, DMK leader T R Baalu, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah and NCP leader Supriya Sule were among those who were present in the House.

The 18-day session is being held amid unprecedented precautionary measures in view of COVID-19.

India witnessed a single day spike of 92,068 COVID-19 cases, and 1,136 fatalities taking the country's virus caseload to 48,46,424 and death toll to 79,722 on Monday.

MPs attending the House had to undergo a COVID test and only those with a negative report were allowed to sit in the House. The security and secretarial staff in Parliament also had to take coronavirus tests before their entry.

While on the first day of the session on Monday, Lok Sabha is sitting in the morning from 9 am to 1 pm, Rajya Sabha is sitting in the evening starting at 3 pm.

On the rest of the days, Rajya Sabha will sit for four hours in the morning and Lok Sabha in the evening.

The chambers of both houses and the galleries are being used for the session and big screens have been installed to enable members to witness proceedings.

(With Agency Inputs)

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