Lok Sabha adjourns sine die
The stormy winter session of Lok Sabha on Thursday came to an end after it saw disruptions for days on end as well as passage of several landmark draft legislations, including the anti-graft Lokpal Bill.
During its 24-day sitting, the House saw just over 82 hours of productive functioning while over 76 hours were lost in the din. The first two weeks were a washout. Of the 27 bills tabled in the House 18 were passed.
The Lower House that witnessed the passage of the historic anti-corruption bill, also saw the UPA government suffer severe embarrassment as a constitutional amendment that would have given constitutional status to the proposed ombudsman was defeated.
Winding up the winter session, Speaker Meira Kumar lamented that no private member business could be taken up due to “forced adjournments”. “In this session, the house sat late for 22 hours and 12 minutes. But regrettably we lost over 76 hours of time due to interruptions followed by forced adjournments,” she said in her valedictory address.
The ruckus over Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail and the opposition demand for an adjournment motion on the issue of price rise, later accepted on a mutually acceptable wording, resulted in disruption of House proceedings for days on end.
Apart from the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, the House passed the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons making the Disclosures Bill, the Life Insurance Corporation (Amendment) Bill and the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill. It sent another bill on whistleblowers to parliamentary standing committee.
