'Over 100 MPs didn't take part in any business in session'

Reports from professional think tank, PRS Legislative Research, show that 68 MPs from the Lok Sabha and 35 MPs from the Rajya Sabha did not participate in either debates or questions or private members' bills.

This is out of the total 479 members of the Lok Sabha and 229 members of the Rajya Sabha, excluding the ministers, the speaker and deputy speaker of Lok Sabha and deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha, making it a total of 14 percent of the two houses' strength.

Shailendra Kumar of the Samajwadi Party participated in the highest number of debates.  A total of 117 MPs in the Lok Sabha did not raise any question. In Rajya Sabha, 79 members asked no questions.

As for the attendance, 41 percent of the MPs in Lok Sabha had more than 90 percent attendance. In the Rajya Sabha, 43 percent MPs had more than 90 percent attendance.

This, however, is no indicator of the time spent by the MPs in the house as the attendance is marked at the entry point into the house. Out of the 138 planned hours in Lok Sabha this year, productive hours added up to 116 which is 84 percent of the total time.

According to data made available by PRS, the question hour saw the maximum disruptions in the lower house as only 11 hours or 47 percent out of 23 planned hours were productive during the session.

In Rajya Sabha, out of the 115 planned hours only 104 hours were productive. Thirteen out of the 23 planned hours for the question hour were productive in the upper house.