On LS Speaker's direction, Parliament starts COVID-19 control room

New Delhi: With an objective to facilitate the instant interface between MPs, MLAs and the public for emergency assistance in the fight against COVID-19, a Control Room has been set up in Lok Sabha Secretariat on the direction of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The decision in this regard has been taken after a video-conference meeting with presiding officers of state legislatures on April 21.

According to a Lok Sabha secretariat official, the issue of setting up a control room was discussed extensively during the meeting with presiding officers.

While stressing on the role and efforts of MPs and MLAs/MLCs in providing relief to the people during the onslaught of the pandemic, Birla emphasised that Parliament and state legislatures stand firmly with the executive and MPs, MLAs/MLCs should remain at the forefront in our national effort to contain the virus spread.

During the interaction, Birla had also called upon all the state legislatures to set up control rooms for real-time information exchange between the various state legislatures and Parliament.

A control room has started functioning within Parliament House. The numbers of the control room are +911123035160 and +911123035163. The states of Rajasthan, Haryana, Odisha, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh have become the first states wherein control rooms have been set up in their respective legislature secretariats.