JS budget session to be cut short due to Covid

• Session to continue for 2 weeks

• Question-answer to be tabled  

• Journos not allowed to cover in person

The daily order of business of this year's budget session will be carried out with minimum lawmakers in the House to maintain social distancing and avoid risk of Covid-19 infection, and the duration of the session will be brief.

"Maintaining all health guidelines, the budget session will continue for around two weeks," Zafar Ahmed Khan, senior secretary of the parliament secretariat, told The Daily Star.

"Due to the ongoing second wave of Covid-19, the budget session would be as short as possible to avoid risk of infection," he said.

"No other business except for budgetary and other important activities will be done during the upcoming session," the senior secretary added.

The 11th Jatiya Sangsad will go into budget session at 5pm on June 2, while Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal is scheduled to place the budget for 2021-22 fiscal the following day.

This will be the 13th session of this parliament.

Usually the budget session continues for 30-35 working days, and discussions of the general budget take 55-60 hours.

The last budget session of current 11th parliament was prorogued after only nine working days due to the pandemic, which was the shortest budget session in recent history of Jatiya Sangsad.

Only MPs, staffers and officials of the parliament secretariat who will be tested negative for Covid-19 will be allowed to attend the session, sources at the parliament secretariat said.

The question-answer session for the prime minister and other ministers in the budget session will be tabled, added Zafar Ahmed Khan.

The parliament has taken various health safety measures during the budget session.

Apart from budget-related officials and employees of the parliament secretariat, others will be discouraged to come to the parliament, sources said.

Senior members of the parliament will be advised not to take part in the session, considering their age.

The parliament will conduct tasks every day with 80-90 lawmakers, so that they can sit maintaining distance in compliance with the health guidelines, sources said.

As per the rules of parliament procedure, the presence of 60 out of 350 members of parliament is mandatory for ensuring a quorum to start the sitting of a parliamentary session.

Presence of respective ministers and MPs would be ensured on days when the session will have business related to them.

The constitution has an obligation to pass the budget before June 30.

The rules of procedure also instruct the members of parliament to discuss the proposed budget.

Sources at the parliament secretariat said media will be requested to cover the budget session through live telecast on Sangsad Television instead of coming to parliament.

No pass will be issued to journalists to cover the budget session this time due to the Covid-19 situation.

However, one reporter from each media outlet will be able to collect budgetary documents.