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Parliament panel to discuss preparedness to fight Covid-19 and future pandemics

Last Updated 05 July 2020, 14:23 IST

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change will meet on July 10 to discuss Covid-19 situation in the country, research and development and the preparedness to fight pandemics in the future.

The multi-party panel, headed by senior Congress MP Jairam Ramesh, will be the first Parliamentary Standing Committee to discuss Covid-19, as an earlier attempt by a similar panel on Home Affairs slated for June 3 had to be cancelled after some MPs expressed their inability to attend the meeting on account of quarantine in different states. A meeting of the Standing Committee on Labour scheduled for June 10 was also earlier cancelled.

The Ramesh-led panel will discuss "preparedness to deal with Covid-19 and other pandemics in future".

"The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology is meeting on July 10th to discuss research and development issues relating to Covid-19, and what more we can do to deal with future pandemics. Your suggestions are welcome. Please email them to rsc-st@sansad.nic.in," Ramesh tweeted.

With physical distancing norms in place due to the pandemic, the Parliament is making extra efforts to ensure that committee rooms with adequate space are allotted for such meetings.

Earlier, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu had reviewed the preparedness for holding such meetings. Both the Rajya Sabha Chairman and the Lok Sabha Speaker had directed that the participation of officials from both the secretariats and the ministries appearing before the committees would be kept to bear minimum to comply with social distancing norm.

There have been demands for holding the Parliamentary Standing Committee meetings through video conference but it did not go forward as the Parliament had to pass a resolution in this regard. Also, questions about confidentiality of proceedings were also raised.

While no other meetings of Standing Committees under Rajya Sabha have been scheduled, three committees under Lok Sabha have set dates for meeting this month.

The first one would be that of the Standing Committee on Petroleum on July 7, during which the officials of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas as well as Public Sector Units in the oil sector would brief the MPs about the National Gas Grid.

On July 10, the Public Accounts Committee headed by leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury will meet to select subjects for examination during 2020-21.

On July 14, the Standing Committee on Information Technology under senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor will take oral evidence from the officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on data security and privacy.

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(Published 05 July 2020, 14:23 IST)

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