Rajya Sabha lost 40 hours to disruption in first two weeks of Monsoon Session

Rajya Sabha could hold proceedings for just 10.08 hours of 50 hours working hours available in the first two weeks of the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament, with sources on Saturday claiming that disruptions are costing the Upper House substantially -- from Rs 1.11 lakh to Rs 1.39 lakh a minute.

The productivity, which has touched just 21.60 per cent in nine sittings in two weeks since July 19, could have been much lower if both sides did not have agreed to hold a discussion on Covid-19 on July 20, which lasted for 4.37 hours.

Sources in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said the annual budget for Rajya Sabha, which includes the functioning of Rajya Sabha TV and Parliamentary Committees under it, is around Rs 460 crore and the expenditure would come to around Rs 1.2 crore per day for a year whether the House sits or not.

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If one takes only the days when Parliament is in session, sources said, the calculation comes to around Rs 4-5 crore a day for 70-80 days. This would mean, they claimed, every lost minute would mean that Rs 1.11 lakh to Rs 1.39 lakh are lost per minute.

During the nine sittings held so far, 39.52 hours out of 50 working hours has been lost due to disruptions. Usually, Rajya Sabha is scheduled to sit for six hours a day.

Sources said the productivity of Rajya Sabha fell to 13.70 per cent during the second week of the ongoing Monsoon Session from 32.20 per cent during the first week, resulting in an overall productivity of 21.60 per cent for the first two weeks.

Only 1.38 hours out of nine hours of Question Hour could be held. Only one minute of nine hours of Zero Hour could be held while four minutes were spent on tabling Special Mentions.

During the first two weeks of the current session, 130 Zero Hour Submissions and 87 Special Mentions could not be taken though they were admitted by Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu. The Rajya Sabha Secretariat has started mentioning the business that could not be taken up in the daily bulletins following the direction from the Chairman.

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For legislative business, 1.24 hours were spent during which four Bills were passed even as Opposition MPs protested. Seven members participated in the discussion of these Bills.

The Bills passed so far are The Marine Aids to Navigation Bill 2021, The Juvenile Justice Amendment Bill 2021, The Factoring Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2021 and The Coconut Development Board (Amendment) Bill 2021. The Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill 2021 and The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (Amendment) Bill 2021 were among the four Bills introduced in the Rajya Sabha.

During the all-party meeting ahead of the Session and the Business Advisory Committee meeting during the first week, Naidu has urged the government and the leaders of various parties to discuss the legislative and other business to be taken up in the House and also has been talking to them separately to enable the smooth functioning of the House.