Bhubaneswar: All MLAs, staff, and other senior officials of the Odisha Assembly will have to undergo RT-PCR tests ahead of the upcoming monsoon session of the Assembly scheduled to be held from September 1st.
Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro, who chaired a meeting to discuss the strategies to be adopted to ensure the smooth functioning of the house, said COVID-19 tests of the MLAs, their security staff, and drivers will be conducted from 8:30 AM to 1.30 PM and from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM on August 29, 30 and 31 in the Assembly premises.
Besides, the legislators will be provided with masks, hand gloves, and sanitizers daily before the commencement of each sitting during the monsoon session of the Odisha Legislative Assembly. Only MLAs and officials who have COVID-19 negative will be allowed to enter the House.
This apart, House members, their PSOs, and drivers who have not been vaccinated against the virus will not be allowed into the house.
The sanitization work of the Assembly premises has been handed over to the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation.
Among others, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, BMC Additional Commissioner Lakshmikanta Sethi, Capital Hospital Director Dr. Laxmidhar Sahoo, Odisha Assembly Secretary Dasarathi Satpathy, H&FW Department Additional Secretary S Mohapatra were present in the meeting.
