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Rajya Sabha clocks productivity of 47.9%; chairman Naidu says 'much below its potential'
This comes as both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha adjourned proceedings sine die today, ahead of the scheduled end of the session (on December 23).
Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday expressed his concern and unhappiness over the functioning of the upper house of Parliament during the winter session. This comes as both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha adjourned proceedings sine die today, ahead of the scheduled end of the session (on December 23).
In brief remarks, Naidu urged members to collectively reflect and individually introspect on the way the session proceeded. "I am not happy to share with you that the House functioned much below its potential," the Rajya Sabha chairman said. "I urged all of you to collectively and individually reflect and introspect if this Session could have been different and better," he added.
"I don't want to speak elaborately on the course of this session as it would lead me to take a very critical view," he also said.
According to the statistics regarding various aspects of the functioning of the House during the winter session, Rajya Sabha clocked productivity of 47.90 per cent during the 18 sittings, news agency ANI reported. Out of the total scheduled sitting time of 95 hours 6 minutes, the House could discharge business only for 45 hours 34 minutes, the data also showed, as per ANI.
The productivity percentage is the fifth-lowest among that of the 12 sessions presided over by Naidu over the last four years. A total time of 49 hours 32 minutes lost due to constant disruptions and forced adjournments.
The time lost amounts to 52.08 per cent of available time.
Meanwhile, the upper house passed 10 bills including those related to electoral reforms and surrogacy.
A total time of 21 hours 7 minutes was spent on discussing the government bills including the Appropriation Bill accounting for 46.50% of the functional time of the House, according to the data. As many as 127 interventions were made by the Members in these debates.
This winter session that commenced on November 29 saw a stormy start as the chairman suspended 12 members of the opposition parties over their unruly behaviour during the monsoon session in August. Since then, opposition members created a constant uproar in Parliament leading to multiple adjournments in the day.
