Telangana: Coronavirus protocols in place for Monsoon session from Monday

Hyderabad: The State Assembly, which is scheduled to commence its nearly two-week-long monsoon session from September 7, is fully geared up to meet the Covid protocols to ensure safe proceedings.

According to Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, it will be "no-corona test, no-entry' whether it be the members, staff, officers, media or police personnel. Similarly, those who were tested with oxygen levels below 90 would be barred from the entry into the Assembly. All the MLAs and MLCs will have to show their corona test results to the monitoring staff at the entry point of the House. The members attending the session have been advised to stop going out of station and not to visit even their relatives till the session is over.

Restrictions on the movement of the legislators and officials at the Chief Minister Office and the ministers' chambers inside the Assembly will also be in force during the session. Six-feet social distance between every member in the House will be maintained and the seating arrangements have been made accordingly both in the Assembly and Council. The Assembly, which used to be a hot spot for legislators visiting the canteen and chit chatting with media in the lobbies, will be a thing of the past. They will now have centres for Covid tests, ambulances and doctors to visit to make sure that they are safe. From the time of legislators getting a salute from the Assembly security staff and being allowed to enter the House, it would now be staff wearing a proper gear welcoming them with touch-free thermal screening gun. If the body temperature is not normal, they would not be allowed to enter the premises. Covid kits with sanitizer, Oxymeter and mask will be provided to every legislator and it is mandated that the members carry the kits with them every day.

The members should check their oxygen levels frequently and they fall below 90, they should consult the doctors in the Assembly or Council. To reduce the physical presence of the media, efforts are on to provide live telecast of entire proceedings either on some TV channel or Youtube.