The one day monsoon session of Punjab Vidhan Sabha has come under a cloud with more than 25 per cent of the legislators testing positive for the novel coronavirus — a day before the session. Even as the opposition parties have demanded curtailing the Vidhan Sabha proceedings to just the obituaries, the Government, it seems, is determined to go ahead with the proceedings, including the passing of bills.
As a total 30 legislators, including four Ministers and the Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker, out of total 117 members afflicted by the contagion, they would not be allowed to attend the one-day session on Friday as per the guidelines issued by the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat.
At the same time, a confusion of sorts is also prevailing whether the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLAs, who had come in contact with their corona-positive party colleagues, would be allowed to enter the Vidhan Sabha as no official communication has been sent to them by the Vidhan Sabha.
To clear the air, AAP MLAs — Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema and Kultar Singh Sandhwan — met the Speaker Rana KP Singh on Thursday. “Nine AAP MLAs will attend the Session tomorrow,” said Cheema.
AAP has a total of 20 MLAs, of which two have joined the Congress while one has rebelled against the party. Besides, five others have also turned rebel but are still continuing with the party.
On the other hand, SAD legislative wing has written to the Speaker seeking clarification whether “the MLAs, who had come in contact with their Covid positive colleague Gurpartap Singh Wadala, could attend the Session tomorrow or not”.
“The Speaker should give clear cut directions in this regard on the basis of Vidhan Sabha rules as well as those of the State and the Centre,” said party MLAs Sharanjit Singh Dhillon and Bikram Singh Majithia adding that the legislative group was in a state of confusion on this issue because it had not received any communication from the Speaker.