Parliament Monsoon session: Plexiglass shields cover the front and side of each bench.
With shields of hardened plexiglass installed around each bench, now only accommodating three instead of six parliamentarians, the Lok Sabha met for 20 minutes and then recessed for an hour on the first day of the Parliament's 18-day Monsoon session.
It is for the first time in the history that both the Houses are being utilised for the convenience and safety of the members," Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said and asked members to remain seated while speaking in the House saying it was being done "on the advice of experts".
Utmost caution - staggered seating, compulsory wearing of face masks, frequent hand sanitisation, a no-touch door opener and a new seating arrangement for social distancing - is being taken to ensure complete Covid safety even as many of the older MPs did not attend the first day of the session.
In the first half of the session, tributes were paid to former president and sitting MP Pranab Mukherjee and 13 other former members who died, some of COVID-19, recently.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was greeted with claps and chants of "Bharat Mata ki Jai" as he entered the chamber - a sea of mask-wearing faces. Some were also seen wearing face shields, including Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee.
The front seats of the Treasury benches on the right of the Speaker's podium seat Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
The front seats of the Opposition benches have been occupied by TR Baalu of the DMK and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Congress as Rahul Gandhi travelled abroad for his mother and party chief Sonia Gandhi's annual medical check-up.
National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah was also present and was seated in the second row of opposition benches. This is Mr Abdullah's his first visit to the national capital after the abrogation of Article 370.
The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will sit in shifts without any break. Today, the Lok Sabha is sitting in the morning from 9 am to 1 pm, Rajya Sabha is sitting in the evening starting at 3 pm. On the rest of the days, Rajya Sabha will sit for four hours in the morning and Lok Sabha in the evening.
With 200 out of 785 Members of Parliament above 65 years of age, and at least seven Union Ministers and two dozen lawmakers recovering from COVID-19, the coronavirus pandemic has cast a shadow over the Monsoon session of the Parliament.