Parliament is in session. Rajya Sabha meets from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Lok Sabha meets from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Members wear masks and observe social distancing.
As per Article 85 of the Constitution six months shall not intervene between its last sitting in one session and the date appointed for its first sitting in the next session. Last sitting of budget session was on 23/3/2020. So Parliament had to meet on or before 22/9/2020.
Some MPs tested positive for Corona and they could not attend Parliament. Some took leave. One MP questioned the accuracy of tests. He said he tested negative in Jaipur and positive in Delhi.
For the first time in India’s history, MPs agreed for salary cut which was 30%. They wanted restoration of MPLADS.
It seems this time MPs will not rush to the well of the house and disrupt Parliament. Opposition is divided. TMC and seven other parties held a protest outside Parliament House demanding Centre give GST to states. Congress was not invited. TMC and Congress are rivals in West Bengal. Congress and four other parties met President Ram Nath Kovind and conveyed their concerns about police investigations of Delhi riots.
SAD member Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned as Food Processing Industries Minister against two farm bills. She said her party can not support anti-farmer legislation. Farmers in Punjab and Haryana have protested against the bills. No news of farmer protest anywhere else.
Centre banned onion export as price went up. Sharad Pawar wants lifting of the ban. He wants farmers to make profit. He is not concerned with losing votes. There are people who do not use onion, garlic, potato, tomato, ginger, honey and so on. For such people onion price going up does not make difference.
I hope MPs will demand end of lockdown and resumption of normal life. Local trains should run. Without them people have to spend more time and lot of money to reach place of work. Lockdown has caused lot of misery.
Government wants to save money. It has no money for GST. However Sports Ministry seems to think otherwise. As per rules in a year one Khel Ratna, 15 Arjuna and 16 other awards, total 32, may be given. The rules may be relaxed in special cases like Asian or Olympic Games. This time it was not special cases. Sports Ministry announced 74 awards. Of them five were Khel Rata and 27 were Arjuna Awards. Prize money went up from 7.5 lakhs to 25 lakhs for Khel Ratna, from 5 lakhs to 15 laks to Arjuna and Dronacharya (Lifetime) and from 5 lakhs to 10 lakhs Dronacharya and Dhyan Chand Awards. No MP has spoken about it.