Rajya Sabha clocked 99.8% productivity in parliament budget session in 2022
New Delhi:
The Rajya Sabha achieved 99.80 percent productivity in the budget session concluded today, missing the 100 percent milestone by just 10 minutes, officials said.
This is the Senate’s third best productive session in the last 14 sessions since the monsoon session (243rd session) of 2017, Rajya Sabha officials said.
Against the scheduled 29 meetings, the House held 27, of which 10 during the first part of the budget session and 17 during the second part that concluded on Thursday.
Holi and Ram Navami were given two seats at the suggestion of leaders of different parties in the House.
The Rajya Sabha secretariat said in a statement that this budget session started on a positive note, witnessing no disruptions and forced interruptions during the first 12 full meetings, which is the best period in about the past three years.
During this session, the Rajya Sabha passed 11 bills, including the six on credit and financing bills that were returned. One bill, the Weapons of Mass Destruction and Their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Amendment Bill, 2022 was introduced in the House today.
The House witnessed forced breaks on six days, all during the second part of the session, but members sat outside scheduled hours on 11 days, officials said, adding that a total of 21 of the 27 sittings were free from forced interruptions.
Contrary to the scheduled sitting time of 127 hours 54 minutes, the House functioned for 127 hours 44 minutes, officials said, adding that House productivity would have been 100 percent without the loss of those 10 minutes.
While the functional time of 9 hours and 26 minutes was lost due to disruptions and forced adjournments, the House gained 9 hours and 16 minutes with members sitting outside scheduled hours.
In total, members discussed the ministries of Railways, North East Region Development, Tribal Affairs and Labor and Employment for a total of 22 hours and 34 minutes. This was the best performance in this regard in the past 12 years, after five ministries were discussed in 2010, the officials claimed.
Of the total functional time, 37 percent was spent on debates about thanksgiving to the president’s speech, the Union’s budget for 2022-23 and the functioning of four ministries.
As much as 23 percent of the time was spent on government bills and 10 percent on issues of public interest through Zero Hour and Special Mentions. The officials said 135 starred questions, representing 37.50 percent of the total of 360, were answered orally in the House. Members raised issues of public interest through 248 Zero Hour and 168 Special Mentions.
During the second part of the budget session, the eight divisional standing parliamentary committees of Rajya Sabha held a total of 16 meetings for a total of 19 hours and 30 minutes.
The average turnout at these meetings was 50.10 percent, and the committees on home affairs, education and health and family welfare reported more than 60 percent, officials said. The average duration of these 16 meetings was 1 hour and 13 minutes.
During the second part of the session, these committees submitted 36 reports, including 30 on grant applications from various ministries and departments.
House productivity of 99.80 percent during this budget session is the third best since the 2017 monsoon session, the statement said.
Productivity of 100 percent or more was recorded during the Monsoon Session (249th) of 2019 and the Monsoon Session (252nd) of 2020, it said.
Rajya Sabha’s productivity during this Session has improved compared to 94 percent of the Budget Session last year. Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu did not make the usual parting remarks on the last day of the Session as some members continued to proclaim slogans and gather in the Well of the House.
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