MPs demand for emergency Parliament session

New Delhi: Some of the MPs have appealed to the President of India to summon two-day emergency session of Parliament to discuss the pandemic and a joint strategy to deal with the crisis.

In a video statement Congress MP Manish Tewari said, "I appeal to the President of India to call a two-day Emergency Session of Parliament Now. Situation in Nation is turning Grave." He alleged that funeral and burial grounds have no space left and there is shortage of oxygen, beds, ventilators and vaccine.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut also called for convening a special session of Parliament for at least two days to discuss the Covid-19 situation in the country. Terming the Covid-19 situation as "unprecedented and almost war-like", Raut said he held discussions with some key leaders from across the country on Sunday over the issue and all of them were of the view that the situation is "serious".

"It's an unprecedented and almost a war like situation. Utmost confusion and tension everywhere! No beds, no oxygen and no vaccination as well! It's nothing but Total Chaos! A Special session of the Parliament for at least two days should be called to discuss the situation!" the Rajya Sabha member tweeted.

Interacting with reporters here, Raut, without taking any names, claimed that some States hid the actual the number of Covid-19 cases. "The practice of hiding numbers has now stopped in some States. Now only lighting up of funeral pyres can be seen at places in some States after explosion of (the practice of) hiding (numbers)," he said.

The Shiv Sena leader claimed there will be "anarchy" if the Covid-19 cases continue to go up, the number of cases are hidden and the governments are unable to control the present situation. Reacting to Raut's comments, Maharashtra BJP's Chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhye pitched for convening a special session of the Assembly first as the State grapples with the Covid-19 crisis. "@rautsanjay61 ji you have perfectly described situation in Maharashtra. So, call special assembly session first to discuss the situation," Upadhye tweeted

India has reported 2,73,810 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day spike ever, pushing the country's overall Covid tally to 1.5 crore, according to the Health Ministry data released on Monday.

This is the fifth consecutive day that the country has registered over two lakh Covid cases taking the total tally to 1,50,61,919 cases. India on Sunday recorded 2,61,500 new cases, 2,34,692 cases on Saturday, 2,00,739 and 2,17,353 cases on Thursday and Friday respectively.

Meanwhile, a total of 1,619 people died of Covid in the last 24 hours, taking the country's death toll to 1,78,769 so far. The daily active cases tally rose to 19,29,329.