Monsoon session of Parliament should begin on time in mid-July: V-P Naidu

Naidu, as chairman of the Rajya Sabha, has reached all members of the Upper House and is learnt to have told some that he hopes the session to follow 'normal schedule'.

Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu has said he expects the monsoon session of Parliament to begin around its “normal schedule” of mid-July.

Parliament has three sessions every year – the budget, monsoon and winter sessions. This year, the budget session was curtailed because of the coronavirus outbreak (Covid-19) and the lockdown that followed.

Naidu, also the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, has in the past few days reached all members of the Upper House, including the newly elected ones. According to sources close to him, some Rajya Sabha members enquired about the next Parliament session, and Naidu responded by saying that would depend on the situation on the ground.

However, Naidu also said that “with the intensive virus containment efforts being mounted across the country and their results showing on ground, one may hope for normal schedule”. The monsoon session, the shortest of the three sessions, usually and begins in the middle of July and lasts a month.

Of the 245 members of Rajya Sabha, Naidu has already spoken to 241 as part of his ‘mission connect’, where he will speak with all members of the Rajya Sabha, governors, chief ministers and political leaders.

Apart from Rajya Sabha MPs, Naidu has spoken with former presidents Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee, former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and H D Deve Gowda, as also the present and former chief justices of India.