Budget session concludes; productivity suffers due to daily adjournments, disruptions
STATE TIMES NEWS
New Delhi: The Budget session of Parliament ended on Thursday amid noisy protests by the Opposition over the Adani issue, a matter which virtually washed out the 25-day-long second leg and all six bills including the crucial Finance Bill were passed without any debate.
As both the houses were adjourned sine die, the productivity of Lok Sabha was 34.38 per cent, the only time it was lower was in the Monsoon Session of 2021, while Rajya Sabha worked for around 24 per cent of its scheduled time, according to a think-tank.
When Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar were delivering their valedictory addresses in the respective Houses, opposition members were raising slogans.
While the Opposition pressed for a probe by a joint parliamentary committee into the Adani issue, BJP members countered by demanding an apology by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his “democracy in danger” remark made in the United Kingdom.
Rahul Gandhi since stands disqualified as a Lok Sabha member following his conviction in a criminal defamation case by a Gujarat court.
As opposition members raised slogans and displayed placards demanding a JPC probe into allegations of fraud against the Adani Group. Birla said, “You have lowered the dignity of the House. This behaviour is not good for parliamentary system and the country.”
“This House is always for high level of debate and discussions. But you systematically disrupt the proceedings which is not good,” he lamented.
The Budget session of Parliament was held in two parts- from January 31-April 6 and February 14 to March 12. There was a recess in between.
This session, Lok Sabha functioned for only 45 hours as against its scheduled 133.6 hours because of disruptions, according to think-tank PRS Legislative Research that compiles the data.
Rajya Sabha worked for just over 31 hours out of 130 hours in the session, the data said.
It said, the productivity, which is the percentage of time the House functioned against the total schedule, was 34.38 per cent for the Lower House in the Budget Session.
The only time the Lok Sabha’s productivity was lower than this was in the Monsoon Session of 2021, when it functioned only for 20.93 per cent of the scheduled time.
Rajya Sabha could devote just around two minutes to legislative business, while it was less than an hour in Lok Sabha.
Financial Business took 17.25 hours in Lok Sabha and 18.23 hours in Rajya Sabha.
Throughout the Session, both Houses witnessed repeated adjournments of the Question Hour.
In his concluding remarks, Birla said the House held discussions on the General Budget for 14.45 hours, and 145 MPs participated in it. Discussions on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address were held for 13.44 hours with participation of 143 MPs.
