RS panel on science and technology meets, Naidu expresses satisfaction on resumption
K V Prasad
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 10
More than three months after Parliament was adjourned abruptly, the Rajya Sabha Committee on Science & Technology met on Friday with three scientific bodies making presentations to the panel on preparedness for Covid19 and beyond.
The meeting of the panel headed by former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh assumes significance as it marks the resumption of the process that remained halted since March 23. A scheduled meeting last month of the Anand Sharma-led Standing Committee on Home Affairs could not be held since some MPs expressed inability to attend due to travel restrictions and quarantine rules in states they represent. The Committee is now due to meet on July 15.
“I am glad that Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committees have resumed functioning, three and half months since the last sitting of Parliament on March 23,’’ Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said in a tweet.
He said the coronavirus pandemic did cast a shadow on the working of these committees, which function on behalf of the Parliament.
While many MPs, especially those in the opposition, were keen that the Committees begin their oversight work through virtual meetings, under the existing rules and confidential nature of the work it could not be held without physical presence of members. The Committee meetings are not open. It is only after a report is finalised and presented to Parliament or to the Chairman/Speaker its contents can come out.
Opposition MPs have been raising the issue of holding of virtual meetings of the panels and Parliament session too. Several parliaments have devised ways to hold sessions in the face of the global pandemic that requires following of strict protocols, including social distancing.
On his part, the Chairman said all possible measures were taken to enable Committee meetings by complying with the norms of social distancing, wearing of masks further to the lifting of restrictions on domestic air travel in May following lockdown.
At today’s meeting, sources privy to the proceedings said the Principal Scientific Adviser, and officials from the Department of Bio-Technology, Department of Science and Technology and Central Scientific and Industrial Research gave presentations related to health, equipment, vaccines, drugs and pharmaceuticals in regard to coronavirus.
