Rajya Sabha lost 34 hours due to disruptions, members should 'seriously introspect': Venkaiah Naidu

NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha was on Friday adjourned sine die with Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu urging members to seriously introspect on their conduct in the House which lost almost 34 hours due to frequent disruptions.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Intense and passionate submissions and debates are the order of democracy, but disruptions are certainly not. I urge upon members to seriously introspect in this regard: Naidu
• 13 bills were passed in the Lok Sabha and nine in the Rajya Sabha during the 13 working days of the Winter Session

The Rajya Sabha, which had 13 sittings during the winter session that started on December 15, saw the passage of nine government bills.

Ahead of adjourning the House sine die at 1pm in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Naidu said the session had its highs and lows, but lamented that it ended up losing some degree of esteem on account of disruptions.

"It is unfortunate that despite discharging its responsibilities to a great extent, the august House ends up losing some degree of the esteem of the people on account of disruptions and substantial loss of functional time.

"Intense and passionate submissions and debates are the order of democracy, but disruptions are certainly not. I urge upon members to seriously introspect in this regard," he said.

Naidu also said it was "an opportunity for all of us to review, recall and introspect" about how the proceedings have been conducted in the House.This, he said, was the first full session after he took over as the chairman and it could have been better than what it proved.

Naidu said though Parliament was a political institution, it "cannot be an extension of politics in its typical sense which is marked by deep divisions and acrimony."
Parliament is an important institution for furthering the shared socio-economic goals of the nation, critical to fulfilling the aspirations of citizens, he said.

"The legislatures of our country including the apex Parliament need to quickly evolve the way we conduct our proceedings so as to meet the needs of our evolving nation," he said.
Naidu said 19 private members' bills were introduced and one was discussed at length.
During the five days when Question Hour was taken up, he said as many as 46 starred questions were orally answered and 51 members made Zero Hour submissions and another 28 made special mentions.

The House functioned a total of 41 hours.

A fruitful session, says government The productivity of the Lok Sabha was 91.58 per cent while that of Rajya Sabha was 56.29 per cent in Parliament's Winter Session which concluded on Friday, Union minister Ananth Kumar said here.

"In a way this session was landmark ... 13 bills were passed in the Lok Sabha and nine in the Rajya Sabha during the 13 working days of the Winter Session," the parliamentary affairs minister told reporters.

During the session, 17 bills were introduced and 12 bills were passed by both the Houses.I am grateful to all the parties and all members of both the houses for making this session fruitful," Kumar said.

Replying to a question on the bill criminalising triple talaq which could not be passed by Rajya Sabha in the session, Kumar blamed the Congress for stalling the crucial legislation and alleged that the opposition came up with a new excuse everday to defer its passage.

The winter session, which started on December 15 and concluded today on January 5, had 13 sittings spread over a period of 22 days.
Both the Houses were adjourned sine die today.