Rajya Sabha works only half its time, government blames opposition

The Lok Sabha had over 100 percent productivity in the winter session of parliament, while the Rajya Sabha could not even reach the halfway mark, working only 46 percent of its time, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said on Wednesday.

Briefing reporters as the winter session came to an end, the minister blamed the Congress for the repeated disruptions.

"This session has been a victim of a strategy conceived before the commencement of this session which was to see that parliament was paralysed, come what may," Naidu said.

The Lok Sabha had 100.46 percent productivity -- calculated as the ratio between the scheduled number of hours and the number of hours the house worked. The Rajya Sabha on the other hand had only 46 percent productivity.

While the Lok Sabha passed 14 bills, the Rajya Sabha passed nine bills, most of them without discussion.

"Broadly, this session has been marred by inventions of excuses to stall the parliament on daily basis by our opponents," he said.

On the GST bill, the minister said the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi raised hopes, and blamed the Congress for not being able to pass it.

"But such hopes were belied since Congress party refused to budge from its pre-session strategy of not allowing the passage of this important legislation," he said, adding that the government has not "given up" on the GST bill.