Naidu laments disruption of RS before closing winter session

Expressing unhappiness over frequent disruption of Rajya Sabha proceedings, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday urged members to seriously introspect on their conduct in the House.

The Rajya Sabha, which had 13 sittings during the winter session that started on December 15, lost almost 34 hours due to frequent disruptions. In this session, nine government bills were passed.

Ahead of adjourning the Upper House sine die at 1 PM in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Naidu said the session had its highs and lows, but lamented that it ended up losing some degree of esteem on account of disruptions.

"It is unfortunate that despite discharging its responsibilities, the august House ends up losing some degree of the esteem of the people on account of disruptions and substantial loss of functional time.

Disruptions undemocratic

"Intense and passionate submissions and debates are the order of democracy, but disruptions are certainly not. I urge upon members to seriously introspect in this regard," he said.

Naidu also said it was "an opportunity for all of us to review, recall and introspect" about how the proceedings have been conducted in the House.

This, he said, was the first full session after he took over as the Chairman and it could have been better.

Naidu said 19 private members' bills were introduced and one was discussed at length.

During the five days when Question Hour was taken up, he said as many as 46 starred questions were orally answered and 51 members made Zero Hour submissions and another 28 made special mentions. The House functioned for 41 hours.