95 MPs didn’t attend Rajya Sabha panel meetings in February: Naidu

The attendance of the lawmakers in eight department-related standing committees was monitored as a part of Naidu’s larger goal to improve participation of MPs in the House panels.

95 Members of Parliament didn’t attend any meeting of the standing committees of the Rajya Sabha in the past month, House Chairman Venkaiah Naidu said on Monday, citing a review done by his officials.

Naidu said that out of the 78 Rajya Sabha MPs who are members in these eight panels, 23 did not attend any meeting. Similarly, 72 of the 166 Lok Sabha members in these panels skipped all their meetings. (ANI File)

The attendance of the lawmakers in eight department-related standing committees was monitored as a part of Naidu’s larger goal to improve participation of MPs in the House panels. Altogether, there are 24 such panels that review the work of different central ministries. Of these, eight are with the Rajya Sabha and the remaining 16 fall under the jurisdiction of the Lok Sabha. All committees have members from both houses of Parliament.

“I thought it necessary to present in the process, the functioning of the Parliament in proper perspective to the people through you and the media. It is because, the general impression is that the sittings of the Parliament are steadily declining over the years and it is around 60 to 70 sittings per year now as against 100 to 150 days per year in the 50s,” Naidu told the House while presenting the report.

The attendance was monitored only for the recess or the period between the two halves of the budget session. This period is crucial as the budget allocations for respective ministries are discussed in the panels during this period before Parliament clears the union budget.

Naidu said that out of the 78 Rajya Sabha MPs who are members in these eight panels, 23 did not attend any meeting. Similarly, 72 of the 166 Lok Sabha members in these panels skipped all their meetings.

According to the report, the panel on health led by Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav has the best attendance, 65.5% followed by the hHome and transport panel (54.8%). The standing committee on Human Resource Development and law recorded 53.7% and 48.3% attendance while the panel on industries has 43.5% turnout. The panel on science and technology has marked just 35.5% attendance and the panel on commerce recorded the lowest at 32.25%. A senior official added, that in two of the three meetings of commerce panel held during this period, minimum required attendance or quorum was missing.

Naidu pointed out that since the introduction of these committees in 1993, “substantial work of the Parliament is being transacted by these Committees in which all most all the parties and groups are represented.” He added that the eight Rajya Sabha panels have altogether held 20 meetings lasting at least 63 hours.