Rajya Sabha records 96 pc productivity in first phase of Budget Session

The Rajya Sabha recorded 96 per cent productivity in the first phase of the budget session that concluded on Tuesday.

During the nine scheduled sittings of Rajya Sabha, the House functioned for 38 hours 30 minutes against the scheduled available time of 41 hours and 10 minutes.

While the House lost 5 hours 32 minutes on February 3 due to disruptions and forced adjournments, the members sat for 3 hours 56 minutes beyond the scheduled time resulting in a net loss of one hour 36 minutes, an official release said.

On the first day, the House was adjourned after the Address of President to the joint sitting of two Houses of Parliament. It was adjourned the second day after laying of budget papers.

During the six effective sittings of the Rajya Sabha, 155 members accounting for 69 per cent of the effective strength of the House spoke.

A total of 323 interventions were made during the 6 functional days which comes to 54 per day.

Thirteen members of Rajya Sabha who are ministers and Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha do not raise questions or generally do not participate in the proceedings which makes the effective strength of the Upper House as 226, according to the release.

"A total of 323 interventions, Zero Hour and Special Mentions were made by 155 Members, of which 83 have got two or more opportunities to participate in the proceedings of the House," it said.

The release said V Vijaysai Reddy of YSRCP had the best participation and had "nine opportunities" including zero-hour mention, special mention, five supplementaries, one starred question, four supplimentaries to starred questions besides participation in the debates on Motion of Thanks to the President's Address and General Budget.

PL Punia, Husain Dalwai, MK Jha, Amar Patnaik, Ravi Prakash Verma, Ashok Bajpai and Amar Shankar Sable got five opportunities each.

The legislative agenda for the second phase of the budget session includes consideration and passing of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 to replace an ordinance.

It also includes the Mineral Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020 to replace an Ordinance, The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill, 2019; National Commission for Homeopathy Bill, 2019; Aircraft Amendment Bill, 2020; the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Bill, 2020 and motion for modification of notification regarding the Right to Information Rules, 2019.