Jairam Ramesh urges parliamentary standing committees be allowed to meet virtually.
Senior Congress chief Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday demanded Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla permit parliamentary standing committees to meet virtually to talk about problems with pressing public significance.
Ramesh, the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, has been calling for permitting the holding of Committee conferences virtually in view of the coronavirus pandemic.
Naidu had earlier disallowed the request, citing guidelines and secrecy points.
“I am requesting this once again for the umpteenth time. Speaker Lok Sabha Om Birla and Chairman Rajya Sabha M Venkaiah Naidu, please allow virtual meetings of Standing Committees. There are so many issues of utmost public importance that need to be discussed urgently,” he stated in a tweet.
Senior Congress chief Shashi Tharoor, the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Information Technology, stated he agreed with Ramesh’s request as bodily conferences will not be potential through the present occasions.
Some conferences of the panel have earlier been cancelled due to the shortage of quorum.
“I agree strongly with Jairam Ramesh and had made the same request last year. We are stymied because virtual participation is not allowed and physical meetings are impossible in the present circumstances (the last one I convened had to be cancelled for lack of a quorum as MPs pulled out),” Tharoor stated on Twitter.
The two leaders had earlier additionally made requests to the presiding officers of each homes of Parliament to permit the holding of digital conferences of Parliamentary panels.
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