Monsoon washout: Rajya Sabha worked for only 9% of allotted time, only one bill passed in session

NEW DELHI: Only one legislation was passed by Parliament during the 17-day monsoon session with Rajya Sabha working for barely 9 per cent of the allotted time, only marginally up from the infamous winter session of 2010 when the House functioned for just 2 per cent of the time. Lok Sabha, aided by the explusion of 25 Congress members for five days, managed to work for almost half the time (48 per cent) allotted to it.

The Delhi high court (amendment) bill 2014 was the only bill -excluding money bills--to have been passed by both Houses. According to Parliament data, the Lower House lost 47 hours and 27 minutes, the Upper House lost 82 hours to disruptions with important legislations like the land acquisition bill, GST bill and whistleblowers protection bill getting delayed.

This session witnessed the lowest number of bills being passed in the last five years. This productivity is in sharp contrast to the budget session this year, which was the most productive session in the last 15 years. During the last session, RS had a productivity of 101 per cent.

As a result of continuous disruptions during Question Hour, only 2 per cent of questions were answered orally while only 1 per cent of the time was spent on legislative business in RS.

In comparison, LS spent 17 per cent of its productive time on legislative business, and 45 per cent on non-legislative business. About 13 per cent of questions were answered orally during Question Hour. Three bills including the Negotiable Instruments (amendments) bill 2015, SC and ST (prevention of atrocities) bill 2014 and Repealing and Amending (fourth) bill 2015 were passed in LS but were discussed for less than three hours, says analysis by PRS Legislative Research.

Despite a lame duck session, the performance of individual parliamentarians was enthusiastic. PRS data show that overall attendance was as high as 75 per cent. Attendance in LS was at 84 per cent, while in RS it was at 78 per cent. In LS, the highest participation was seen in MPs between 56 to 70 years of age. A LS MP participated in about 20 debates on average. However, 48 MPs (9 per cent) from that House did not participate in any debates, of which 27 were first time MPs. Among parties with more than 10 MPs, Shiv Sena MPs had high participation, with 25 debates on average for each MP. This was followed by BJD and Congress, with about 20 debates per MP.