Maharashtra Assembly on September 7 and 8; only COVID-19 negative legislators to be allowed

Mumbai: The monsoon session of Maharashtra state Legislature would be held for two days between September 7 and 8, owing to COVID-19 pandemic. All members of the Assembly and Council will undergo RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) test on September 6 for detection of coronavirus and only legislators who test negative will be allowed to attend the session.

The decision to hold the two-day session was taken at a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the Legislature on Tuesday.

A senior Congress legislator, who attended the meeting, said, “A total of seven bills along with the supplementary demands would be tabled in the two-day session of the state legislature”. The meeting was attended by Assembly speaker Nana Patole, legislative council chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, his deputy Ajit Pawar and leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis among others.

The senior official said that there will be strict implementation of physical distancing norms in the house as well as in the gallery. Every member will get a safety kit consisting of face shield, mask, hand gloves and sanitisers, among other items.

Eight bills are likely to be tabled during the session which will see discussion on supplementary demands. The monsoon session was originally scheduled to be held in June which was later deferred to August.