No winter session of parliament due to COVID-19

Winter session of parliament: All parties are in favor of canceling the session, the government said. (Archive)

This time there will be no winter session of Parliament due to the coronavirus outbreak, the government has said. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi has said that all parties are in favor of scrapping the session to prevent any spread of Covid and moving directly to the budget session in January.

Joshi confirmed this in a letter in response to congressional leader Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary’s demand for a session to discuss the controversial new farm laws that are at the center of the mass protests by farmers on the roads near Delhi. Chaudhary, the leader of the Lok Sabha in Congress, had stressed the need to amend the laws, which he said were passed by the government in parliament.

The minister responded that he had held talks with leaders of all parties and the consensus was not to convene a session due to COVID-19.

The constitution says that parliament must meet within six months. The budget session is likely to be held in the last week of January before the budget announcement on February 1.

Several congressional leaders had requested a session as soon as possible, with precautions in place, saying it was critical to discuss various concerns before the country, including the farmers’ protests, the economy and the China dispute.

In September, the monsoon session of parliament was interrupted after many MPs hired Covid.

Seventeen members of the Lok Sabha and eight of the Rajya Sabha had tested positive before the session began.

Many MPs who initially tested negative became infected during the session. According to the ministers, the infection spread despite measures such as social distancing, separate shifts and regular RT-PCR tests.

Around 200 of the 785 MPs are over 65 years of age and therefore more vulnerable to the coronavirus.