Majority parliamentary panel meetings postponed amid COVID-19 surge

By Ashoke Raj
New Delhi [India], April 16 (ANI): With India witnessing a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases in recent days, various meetings of the Parliamentary Standing Committees have been postponed due to the surge in coronavirus infections.
The meeting of the Standing committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, scheduled to be held on April 19, has been postponed.
"Members are informed that the meeting of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice scheduled to be held at 3 pm on Monday, April 19 stands postponed due to prevailing Covid situation. The next date of the meeting of the Committee will be intimated in due course," a Rajya Sabha Secretariat letter read on Friday.
The meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology (IT) has also been postponed due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.
"In supersession of this Secretariat Notice of even number dated March 31 and April 9 2021, members are informed that the sitting of the Standing Committee on Information Technology (2020-21) scheduled to be held on Friday, April 16 from 4 pm in Committee Room 'B', Parliament House Annexe, New Delhi has been postponed," Loksabha Secretariat letter read.
Recently, the meeting of the Parliamentary Panel for Health waspostponed due to the same reason.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Panel for Urban Development (HUD) Jagadambika Pal has tested positive for Covid-19 and his committee meetings are also postponed.
However, many members are in favour to hold parliamentary-related meetings virtually for a time to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections.
"It is not possible to stop government work but for some time, we can change our work-nature as panel meetings can be called virtually," an AAP Rajya Sabha member told ANI.
Parliamentary panel for transport, tourism and culture chairman is taking the discussion to discuss on an important subject to hear the senior representatives of Private Airlines and Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) on issues related to Airport Authority of India (AAI) and other private airport operators with reference to operations, air traffic management and passenger facilitation. It is yet to be decided whether the said meeting will be held on schedule or not.
India reported its highest-ever single-day spike in COVID-19 cases with over 2.17 lakh new cases and more than 1,100 deaths on Thursday. In the last 24 hours, 1,185 COVID-related deaths were reported in the country taking the death toll to 1,74,308. (ANI)