Parliament sits for second pandemic-time budget session from Wednesday

Parliament will convene on Wednesday for the national budget for fiscal year 2021-22 while the country is still shoring up defences against the coronavirus pandemic into the second year since its emergence.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 1 June 2021, 03:28 PM
Updated : 1 June 2021, 03:28 PM

The session will start at 5pm chaired by Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal will propose his third national budget in a shorter session like last year due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Last year’s budget session began on Jun 10. Kamal proposed a Tk 5.68 trillion spending plan for the year 2020-21 in the nine-day session, the shortest in Bangladesh’s history.

A limited number of MPs attended the budget session in parliament wearing masks and gloves and keeping physical distance on Thursday to stop coronavirus transmission. Photo: PID

All plans to hold the session, including measures for health safety, are already in place, according to several officials of the Parliament Secretariat.

The session will run for 12 days, Parliament Whip Iqbalur Rahim told bdnews24.com.

“Strict protocols are being followed against the risk and fear of coronavirus. We’ve already taken all the required steps to ensure no one gets infected in the budget session,” he said.

“The seating arrangements at the session room will remain unchanged. The MPs will sit maintaining a definite distance. To join the session, certification stating negative results for coronavirus has to be acquired through testing of samples after a specific amount of time passes.”

The result of one test will remain valid for two straight days, so MPs will have to undergo multiple tests for the 12-day run.

MPs will attend the meeting based on a list this year as well where the attendance will be limited to between 100 and 120 people each working day, which means each parliament member will attend three to four sessions at most.