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Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will meet speakers of all state assemblies and Union Territories through video conferencing to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic on Tuesday.
Birla is also chairman of All India Presiding Officers’ Conference
UP Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit would represent the state from Lucknow while UP Legislative Council Chairman Ramesh Yadav will also participate in the video conference.
On Monday, Dikshit said in Lucknow that activities of legislative bodies like Parliament and assemblies during the coronavirus pandemic held special significance.
As per the agenda of the conference issued by the Lok Sabha secretariat, the focus will be on COVID-19 and the situation after nation-wide lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The conference will also deliberate on the agenda of Presiding Officers’ Conference-2020, to be held later this year.
The other issues of the agenda are different programmes to be held this year and proposed meetings of four zones of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in 2020.
Meanwhile, The UP speaker has written to all MLAs, urging them to abide by guidelines and protocol issued by the Union and UP governments for preventing coronavirus spread. He said that the entire nation was fighting the pandemic and despite 130 crore population, the country had so far achieved considerable success in containing the pandemic.
“All MLAs must be playing an active role in respective constituencies to prevent coronavirus spread and many members have taken effective steps in this regard. On the basis of feedback gathered from constant communication with MLAs, I wish to offer some suggestions,” Dikshit said in the letter.
He said that MLAs should inspire people to follow lockdown and promote social distancing through social media and ask coronavirus suspects to go for tests and inform the district administration about themselves.
It was also suggested that MLAs should keep a watch on distribution of essentials from ration shops and inform the district administration if there were any irregularities.
The speaker said that MLAs should contradict rumours through the social media and left it to their discretion to add other measures to fight the pandemic in respective constituencies.
Meanwhile, all officers and employees of UP assembly secretariat will donate a day’s salary for UP COVID Care Fund on their own volition. The assembly speaker had appealed to the staff to donate for the fund.