Now, allow house panels to meet: BJD’s Bhartruhari Mahtab to Om Birla

New Delhi: Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee, Bhartruhari Mahtab, has told the Lok Sabha Speaker that with the resumption of services of passenger airlines and trains, it is time to allow the convening of the House Panels to take up matters pending long due to the lockdown-enforced non-functioning of these committees. He said such meetings can be convened at the halls in Parliament House, Parliamentary Library Building and Parliament House Annexe.

The suggestions, which were learnt to have made in a letter to the Speaker on Tuesday by Mahtab, who had earlier sought the Chair’s permission to convene the meetings of the Standing Committees via videoconference due to the lockdown, also signals that the discourse/demand is now clearly shifting towards convening early normal meetings of the committees after the resumption of air/train services.

Recalling how no decision was taken on his earlier demand for virtual meetings, Mahtab told Om Birla that convening normal meetings of committees without further delay is important in view of the pending businesses such as examining the Social Security Code, 2019.