The Assembly session was originally scheduled to last three days
Bhopal:
Eight bills were passed in 90 minutes by the Madhya Pradesh Assembly today, which held a one-day session amid the Covid pandemic, for which 78 MPs were present in the House and 23 were assisted by videoconference – a first for the State.
The session started at 11 a.m. At 12:30 p.m., a body of legislation, including the Finance Bill, Madhya Pradesh Money Lender Bill (Amendment), Madhya Pradesh Municipal Law Bill (Amendment) and the Madhya Pradesh VAT (Amendment) Bill, were approved.
Previously, under guidelines in place during the pandemic, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was tested with a pulse oximeter and had his temperature checked before entering the Assembly building.
Mr. Chouhan, who has recovered from a Covid infection, followed all precautionary measures.
However, former Chief Minister Kamal Nath and Home Secretary Narrotam Mishra were both seen without face masks, which are mandatory for all lawmakers and were also made mandatory for MPs attending the session of the Monsoon of parliament in Delhi.
Other ministers also underwent the necessary tests before entering the Madhya Pradesh Assembly building today, where arrangements had been made for hand sanitizers and, inside, social distancing. .
The brief session was necessary at this point to follow the rules which state that there can be no more than six month interval between two sessions of the Assembly. It was originally scheduled for three days.
The same rule is why parliament stands with a host of strict Covid protocols.
After the bills were passed, the chief minister said the arrangements in the coronavirus war were being made on a war footing. As a result, he said, the state’s collection rate was 77.30 percent and the crisis had been better handled than several other states.
However, Kamal Nath, who is also the leader of the opposition, highlighted several issues facing COVID-19 patients, such as the unavailability of oxygen and ventilators and demanded an open investigation into the management.
Meanwhile, a congressman from Gadarwara staged a solo sit-in at Assembly premises demanding that a police officer – an additional superintendent from his district – be transferred, alleging he is harboring criminals in his constituency.
Madhya Pradesh has around 1.05 lakh Covid cases so far, of which 1,970 are virus-related deaths and around 22,300 are active cases.
