New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS) Both houses of parliament were adjourned sine die Tuesday, thus concluding the over month-long monsoon session which saw many disruptions leading to loss of nearly 50 hours of scheduled timing.
During the session, the opposition sought to corner the government on the issue of rising prices of food grains, floods and worsening situation in Jammu and Kashmir which led to frequent adjournments of both houses.
According to PRS Legislative Research, nearly 25 hours were lost in the Lok Sabha. In the scheduled 19 sittings, only six hours and 41 minutes were dedicated to question hours, though 19 hours were scheduled for questions in the session with the first hour of each day being a question hour.
In the Rajya Sabha, over 22 hours were lost due to adjournments and time spent on questions in the upper hours was higher than the Lok Sabha. Ten hours and 36 minutes were dedicated to questions in the Rajya Sabha of the 19 hours planned.
During the intense debates on varying issues, over 100 MPs of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha did not speak during the monsoon session.
According to PRS Legislative Research, 68 MPs from the lower house and 35 from the upper house did not participate in any debate. The total strength of the two houses is 795, including ministers and the speaker.
Forty-one MPs in Lok Sabha and 25 in the Rajya Sabha marked 50 percent attendance.
In the lower house, 195 members and 98 in the upper house recorded over 90 percent attendance.
According to the PRS out of the 140 planned hours in the Lok Sabha, only 116 were productive, and in the Rajya Sabha, out of the 115 planned hours, 104 hours were productive.
The PRS also noted that the government planned to introduce 35 bills for passage but only 19 got parliament’s nod.
