Nagaland's one-day monsoon session on Thursday

The House which was earlier convened on July 30 could not meet at that time after at least 6 assembly staff were found positive for virus a day before. Speaker Sharingain Longkumer said Wednesday that the session is being held in order to fulfill the constitutional requirement of holding the sitting within a six months period.

The one-day monsoon session of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) will be held on Thursday amid surging Covid-19 cases in the state. The House which was earlier convened on July 30 could not meet at that time after at least 6 assembly staff were found positive for virus a day before.

Speaker Sharingain Longkumer said Wednesday that the session is being held in order to fulfill the constitutional requirement of holding the sitting within a six months period. The house will convene at 9:30 am.

Commissioner and Secretary, Dr P J Antony, said that altogether 19 MLAs, including the two who had tested positive earlier, have applied for leave expressing their inability to attend the session due to varied reasons. The northeastern state has been witnessing a spike in COVID cases with total positive patients rising to 3118 Wednesday, while the death toll stands at 8.

A total of 1113 people have recovered from the disease so far. After deferment of the scheduled session, the only opposition party Naga Peoples Front (MNF)- had demanded that the House sit for at least three days so that discussions could be held on a host of topics like Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Securities Interest (SARFAESI) Act, 2002 and COVID-19 pandemic scenario in the state.

However, the speaker did not accept the demand. "Earlier too it was fixed for a day and now also it will be a day-long session only," he told PTI.

"Considering pandemic and the safety of all those attending the meeting, holding one day session is the best option", Longkumer said. He said meticulous arrangements have been put in place for the conduct of the session by maintaining standard operating procedures (SOP) for COVID-19.

The speaker also informed that the house would have an hour of deliberation on coronavirus situation in the state, while other proposals of the opposition on Naga issue and SARFAESI Act would be taken up during the full-fledged sitting of the house. The effective strength of the 60-member Nagaland assembly is 58, with the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) having 19 MLAs and its ally BJP 12.

The ruling coalition also has the support of an Independent. Opposition NPF has 26 MLAs.

Two members- one each from the ruling coalition and the opposition- died last year. As per directives of the speaker, all legislators, administrative heads of department and their supporting staff, officials and employees of the state assembly have undergone COVID-19 re-test, Antony said.

He said only those with negative test results would be attending the deferred session. The business for the day includes obituary reference, question hour, introduction and passing of government bill The Nagaland Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill 2020, which will be moved by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio.

Rio will also place the State Disaster Management Plan, Incident Response System, State Disaster Management Rules and Minimum Standards of Relief for discussion. The annual administrative report of the state government departments 2019-2020 would also be tabled by the ministers.