Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha lose 40-45 hours each due to disruptions, more than 133 crores money wasted

New Delhi: Ever since Monsoon Session of Parliament convened on July 19, Lok Sabha as well as Rajya Sabha have barely worked. Both houses have witnessed uproarious scenes and wide pandemonium created by Opposition members on issues like Pegasus Snooping row.

The continuous disruptions of Houses has led to wastage of Rs 133 crore taxpayers money. Out of 107 total allocated hours, both houses have functioned for only 18 hours in last 2 weeks. This means 89 hours of working time were wasted.

Lok Sabha was allowed to function for about 7 hours out of possible 54 hours while Rajya Sabha saw house proceedings for just 11 hours out of possible 53 hours.

Details of disruptions and time wastage in Rajya Sabha

The productivity of Upper House fell drastically as the Rajya Sabha Secretariat in an official notification informed that the House lost 40 out of 50 working hours during the first two weeks of the session.

“With disruptions continuing, the productivity of Rajya Sabha fell to 13.70% 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. Of the total 50 working hours available, 39 hours 52 minutes has been lost due to disruptions.

“The House, however, sat for 1.12 hours beyond the scheduled time, but for which the productivity would have been much lower,” read the official notification.

During the 9 sittings of these 1st two weeks, Rajya Sabha only had 1.38 minutes of Question Hour, which is primarily meant for ensuring the accountability of the executive to the Parliament; 1 hour 24 minutes for legislative business passing four Bills with seven members intervening; 1 minute of Zero Hour and another 4 minutes on Special Mentions.

COVID-19 related issues were discussed for 4 hours 37 minutes during the first week and the Minister for IT made/laid a Statement on the Pegasus spyware issue during the first week.

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.