Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu on February 2 asked the members to ensure a productive Budget session, after the winter session where 52.10% of the functional time was lost due to disruptions.
Speaking at the start of the proceedings in the House, Mr. Naidu said this session, apart from being a Budget session, was significant as the country was celebrating 75 years of Independence and 70 years since the first general election. Citing the productivity of last year’s Budget session (93.50%), Mr. Naidu asked the members to ensure the best performance of the House this time.
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“During the preceding monsoon session last year, the loss of functional time of this House was as high as 70.40%. This trend of disruptions is highly disturbing. I refer to the same with fervent hope that we all reflect on the same and conduct ourselves in a manner befitting the historic time that we are passing through,” Mr. Naidu said.
The Chairman said that while voter turnout had increased from 45% in the 1951-1952 elections to 67% in 2019, the elected representatives “do not seem to be reciprocating in equal measure with the functioning of legislatures declining over the years”. He urged the 5,000 MPs, MLAs and MLCs in the country to conduct themselves in a matter befitting the trust of the people.
Mr. Naidu noted that the attendance of MPs had increased from 47.64% in 2016-2017 to 48.79% in 2019-2020, but fell “marginally” in 2020-2021 to 47%.
“This is a very welcome improvement showing the deep commitment of each one of you to your Parliamentary duties. With regard to the duration of meetings of the eight committees of Rajya Sabha, the average duration of meetings improved from 1 hour 48 minutes in 2016-2017 to 2 hours 10 minutes during 2019-2020, marking an increase of 22 minutes on an average per meeting,” Mr. Naidu said.
For the ongoing Budget session, Mr. Naidu said the Business Advisory Committee had allocated 12 hours for the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President and 11 hours for discussion on the Budget 2022-2023.
