Lok Sabha records highest productivity in last five years

The winter session of parliament that ended Tuesday saw the Lok Sabha recording its highest productivity in the last five years, working more than 105 percent of its scheduled time.

According to the parliamentary affairs ministry, the Lok Sabha session saw 105.71 percent productivity, slightly higher than the 104 percent in the first budget session of the 16th Lok Sabha in July-August.

The reason was the absolute majority the Narendra Modi government enjoys.

In fact, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M.Venkiah Naidu said: "It was evident that while the majority in the Lok Sabha was used constructively, the same was used to obstruct legislation in the Rajya Sabha." The government is in minority in the upper house with the National Democratic Alliance having just 59 members in the 245-member house.

Productivity is calculated on the basis of number of hours the house functions, compared to the number of scheduled hours.

This stands in sharp contrast to the performance during the 15th Lok Sabha.

The lower house, in last winter session of 2013 recorded only 15 percent productivity, while the monsoon session in 2013 had 58 percent productivity and the budget session was at 49 percent, according to data compiled by PRS Legislative Research.

In last five years, the closest the lower house came to this performance was in the budget session of 2009 reaching 104 percent. This was the first budget session after the UPA government returned to power.

Earlier, during UPA-I, Lok Sabha had reached 110 percent productivity in 2005.

Marred by disruptions this winter session, the Rajya Sabha was the exact opposite.

It lagged with just 67.18 percent productivity, as per the government.

The upper house, in contrast to the house of the people, has seen better performances reaching 106 percent productivity in the budget session this year during the NDA government.

In the budget session of 2009, Rajya Sabha reached 113 percent of its productivity.

The percentage of questions answered orally in the lower house is also high at 23 percent in this session.

This is, however, slightly lower than the July-August budget session, when 24 percent of the listed questions were answered orally, taking the tally to the

highest since 2004 as 126 questions were orally answered in the budget session.

The highest tally for questions answered orally under the UPA-II government was 20 percent in the winter session of 2009, and 21 percent in winter session of 2007 during UPA-I.

(Data source: Parliamentary affairs ministry and PRS Legislative Research)