Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu pulls up MPs for low attendance in parliamentary panels

NEW DELHI: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu held discussions with chairpersons of eight department-related standing committees (DRSCs) and 12 committees headed by the House to discuss the issue of low attendance during the meetings of these panels.

Only 18 of the 80 Rajya Sabha MPs who are part of the eight DRSCs have attended all the meetings since September, according to Naidu who shared the data with the House on Thursday. Among the Lok Sabha members of the same committees, only 18 of 168 were present in all the meetings.

Naidu said over 28 members accounting for over 11% of the 248 members of the Upper House did not attend any meeting and over 100 members accounting for 40% of the total skipped two or more consecutive meetings.


Forty-one meetings of DRSCs and standing committees have taken place since September. According to the figures shared with the House, the average attendance in each of the 41 meetings was 48.54% for the eight DRSCs (which means less than half of the strength was present).

Naidu suggested that to improve attendance, the date of the meetings should be conveyed well in advance, a day of the week should be fixed for the meetings, each committee should aim to have 2/3 of the members present, duration of the meetings should be increased and the chairperson of the committee should keep record of attendance.