Two Parliamentary Committees to discuss Covid-19 concerns on June 23

Covid-19 concerns and the impact on employment and livelihood will echo in the meetings of two Parliamentary Committees next week after a failed attempt by the Public Accounts Committee to take up for discussion Centre's vaccination policy.

On June 23, the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Lok Sabha on Labour headed by BJD leader B Mahtab will have a briefing by the representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Employment on issues relating to the impact of Covid-19 on 'rising unemployment and loss of jobs and livelihood in organised and unorganised sectors.

On the same day, the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Rajya Sabha on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change headed by senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh will hear the views of Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India Prof K VijayaRaghavan, NITI Aayog member and Chairman, National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) Dr V K Paul and the representatives of the Departments of Biotechnology and Scientific and Industrial Research on issues like vaccine development for Covid-19 and genetic sequencing of coronavirus and its variants.

Read more: Covid-19: NDA-Congress slugfest at PAC meet over vaccines

The expert committee NEGVAC has been set up by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). It provides guidance on all aspects of Covid-19 vaccination like prioritisation of population groups, procurement and inventory management, vaccine selection and vaccine delivery and tracking mechanism.

The issue of Covid-19 has been examined by several committees in the past as well. Last year, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, had in its 123rd report recommended the government to “encourage adequate production of oxygen” to meet the needs of hospitals.

Pointing this out in April, when the Covid-19 second wave was surging, Ramesh had asked why it was not done and said that the shortage of oxygen in hospitals across the country is an "unmitigated man-made disaster". The panel led by Samajwadi Party MP Ramgopal Yadav also predicted a second wave of Covid-19 by November 2020.

In March this year, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, chaired by Ramesh had in its report on demand for grants for the Department of Biotechnology had made a recommendation for ramping up ramping the production capacity of Covaxin and Covishied, the two Covid-19 vaccines manufactured in India so that a wider population may have access to it.

Ramesh, a Rajya Sabha member from Congress, had in April made a strong pitch for beginning virtual meetings of Parliamentary Committees to discuss issues of public importance, a suggestion with which another Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, a Lok Sabha MP chairing the Standing Committee on Information Technology had expressed full agreement. Both the leaders had urged the Chair of the respective Houses to allow such meetings.