Rajya Sabha adjourned amid coronavirus spread, clocks 76% productivity

As Parliament adjourned sine die in the wake of the spread of COVID-19, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday reminded MPs that no one has the right to disrupt the House as he expressed concern over the loss of 24% of the time during the Budget Session.

Rajya Sabha functioned for 90 hours and 30 minutes against the scheduled duration of 118 hours 52 minutes during 23 sittings, clocking productivity of 76.13%. While 38 hours 23 minutes have been lost due to disruptions, the House sat beyond the scheduled time on nine days for 9 hours 59 minutes.

On disruptions, Naidu said in his valedictory address, "it is incumbent upon me to remind the MPs that you have a certain right to discuss and debate any issue in the House but not the right to disrupt the proceedings as claimed by some. The full and proper exercise of the right to discuss and debate would have resulted in 100% productivity as against the 76% that it turned out to be for this important Budget Session. I hope that we move forward in the right direction hereafter.”

He said the Budget Session was primarily meant for charting the right course of action for economic growth and development for 2020-21 but "ironically, the global outbreak of Covid-19 is set to play havoc with the global economic outlook with India being no exception".

During the session, 249 issues of public importance have been raised by MPs through 170 Zero Hour notices and 79 Special Mentions. Seventy-nine questions were orally answered on 11 days accounting for 48% of the total 165 questions listed for oral answers. A total of 12 Bills have been passed by the Rajya Sabha, including six on the last day on Monday.

For discussing government bills, 14 hours and 56 minutes were spent while another 5 hours 45 minutes were utilised for discussing Private Members Bills. Eleven hours and 24 minutes were spent on discussing the functioning of the Ministries of Railways, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Law and Justice accounting for over 13% of the total time of the House.