By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Mar. 16: The Tibetan Parliament in Exile (TPiE) of the Central Tibetan Administration on Monday began its session amid the threat of Covid-19 pandemic. The ongoing session will oversee the budgetary allocation of the the fiscal year 2021-2022.
The session was postponed on August 17 last year by the house Standing Committee citing growing danger of the Covid-19 pandemic and the inability of the MPs to attend the session due to the travel ban at the time. As part of its precautionary measure, the house this time has not hosted any observers or guests to attend the proceedings in the house. The dedicated observer area to seat guests is instead used to seat MPs to accommodate social distancing in the house.
Although the parliamentary secretariat announced earlier this month that the house will convene from March 15 to 31, the speaker Pema Jungney said that the proceedings may be concluded before the stipulated time. “In the light of the situation across India and cases continuing to mount in the neighbouring state of Punjab, it is difficult to say whether the parliament will complete the 15-day session. Hence, we will have to assess the situation. In case, the businesses are completed before the end of the scheduled number of days, we might decide to suspend the session accordingly,” the speaker was quoted as saying by Tibet.net.
Jungney urged the parliament members to adhere to precautionary measures and urged them to notify the relevant officials immediately in case of any symptoms of the virus are detected. All the MPs who have attended the session have tested negative for the virus, he added.
The first day of the session saw 16 resolutions of official mourning, beginning of discussion and approval of the budget, revision of the annual audit report, and discussions on legislations. The ongoing session that is scheduled to end on March 31, is the 10th and the final session of the 16th TPiE.
