Parliament functioned only for 59 days during Budget Session

The Parliament functioned only for 59 days during the Budget Session after the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned sine die on Friday.

The Budget Session was conducted in two parts. The first half of the session was held from January 31 to February 9 and after a month-long recess, the second half of the session began on March 9.

The second half was least productive in terms of parliamentary business despite having more sittings than the first session.

The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha sat for 22 days each in the second part compared to seven and eight days respectively in the first part.

However, the productivity ratio of the Lok Sabha in the second part was only four percent compared to 134 percent in the first part.

In the second part, the productivity ratio of the Rajya Sabha stood at eight percent, which was much low than 96 percent during the first part.

The average productivity ratio of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha in both the parts was 23 percent and 28 percent respectively.

In the second part, five Bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha, which were passed. The Rajya Sabha passed one Bill.

Four Bills are deemed to have been passed by both the Houses of the Parliament during the Budget Session.

On Thursday, MPs of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) decided to forego their salaries for the 23 days of the Budget Session when Parliament did not function because of protests by the Congress and other political parties.

The Opposition parties regularly created ruckus in the Parliament demanding a debate on issues pertaining to the Cauvery Management Board, promise of special category status to Andhra Pradesh, bank frauds of hundreds of crores, CBSE paper leak, "dilution" of The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the sealing drive in Delhi.

The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, The Mental Health Care Bill, The Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Bill, The Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the crucial four supporting bills for the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax were prominent bills that were passed during the budget session.