With increasing cases of coronavirus each day, Parliament is looking for options whether to hold the upcoming monsoon session of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha virtually or attending in-person keeping in mind social distancing norms.

According to sources, an official meeting on Tuesday was held between Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu, Speaker Om Birla and other officials of the houses. They evaluated the possibilities and preparedness of the virtual sessions of both houses from their respective places or having a semi-virtual session with some attending in person and some joining it virtually.

In the meeting officials also informed that in order to follow the social distancing norms, Lok sabha and the central Hall of Parliament can only accommodate around 100 members at a time. Although the Rajya Sabha chamber is very small where only 60 members can be accommodated if social distancing norms are followed.

The total number of members in Lok Sabha are 545 whereas Rajya Sabha consists of 245 members.

With members of both the houses speak in their own mother tongue, Vigyan Bhawan and the Central Hall do not have such translation facility therefore having interpretations and translators is very difficult during this pandemic situation will also be challenging.

Officials also stated that one option of allowing only those members whose participation is mandated as per the items listed for the discussion and who can be accommodated while following the social distancing norms was also discussed.