File Pix Lok Sabha: Picture Credit : The Indian Express
The 19-day Monsoon Session of the Parliament concluded on Friday. During the session, the Upper House welcomed its new Chairman, M Venkaiah Naidu and bid farewell to three retiring members, Sitaram Yechury of CPM, Dilipbhai Pandya of BJP, and Debabrata Bandyopadhyay of All India Trinamool Congress.
Both Houses have passed only nine out of the 25 bills on a range of subjects. The items on the government’s priority list were four bills to replace Ordinances such as the Motor Vehicles bill and bills related to the IIMs and IITs. The crucial Motor Vehicles Bill and ‘The Code on Wages’ bill could not be passed in the Monsoon Session of the Parliament.
According to The Indian Express, Lok Sabha worked for approximately 70 percent of its scheduled time, and Rajya Sabha for about 73 percent of the allotted time. The Upper House spent 22 hours discussing bills while the Lower House dedicated 28 hours out of the 71 functional hours to legislative business. That comes up to around 26.4 percent of productivity out of the hours allotted for functioning in the brief session of the Parliament.
The Rajya Sabha passed nine bills and held debates on a number of crucial issues like lynchings and the agrarian crisis facing the country in its 243rd session. A highlight of the session was that the new Chairman M Venkaian Naidu took over on its last day on Friday. During the 19 sittings, the House sat for more than 78 hours but lost nearly 25 hours due to disruptions over various issues.
The House also sat late for more than seven hours to complete legislative and other businesses. Naidu, before adjourning the House sine die, gave an overview of the proceedings during the session that began on 17 July. During the session, members spoke on the 75th anniversary of the Quit India movement and a resolution was adopted.
Two new members Vinay Dinu Tendulkar, Sampatiya Uikey joined the Houthe House while BSP leader Mayawati and M Venkaiah Naidu resigned. During the session, references were also made to the passing away of Union minister Anil Madhav Dave and sitting member Palvai Govardhan Reddy as well as 11 former members.
References were also made to torrential rains in several parts including the North East and the terror attack in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir. Among the bills passed by the House were National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Amendment) Bill, Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Public Private Partnership) Bill, Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, etc.
The Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill was referred to a Select Committee while the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill was referred to a joint committee. There were 87 special mentions and 17 hours of short duration discussions. During the session, 285 starred questions and 3,040 unstarred question were admitted and answered. Of these 46 starred questions were orally answered. Question Hour could not be taken up on three days due to disruptions.
Several reports, including those by various committees, were also presented during the Monsoon Session of the Rajya Sabha.
On the other hand , The Lok Sabha met for 19 sittings in the Monsoon Session that saw the passage of 14 legislations, including the Banking (Amendment) Bill, and the suspension of six Congress members for “highly unbecoming” behaviour. The Monsoon Session also witnessed the elections to the posts of the President and the Vice President of the country.
According to various media reports, Heated debate and verbal duels were witnessed between the Opposition and Treasury benches during the session on vital issues like cow-lynching and mob-violence, agrarian crisis, and the attack on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat, allegedly by BJP workers. A special discussion was also held on the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the House sat for 71 hours during the Monsoon Session. She said 29.58 hours were wasted due to disruptions, but the House tried to compensate it by sitting for 10.36 extra hours.
Starred questions numbering 63 were given oral answers and 4,370 unstarred questions were given written responses. Ministers laid 1,270 statements during the session, while members also introduced 28 Private Members Bills in the House.
Crucial legislations like the Company (Amendments) Act 2016 and the NABARD (Amendment) Act 2017 were also passed by the Lok Sabha. The session saw six Congress MPs getting suspended for five days for hurling papers at the Chair, termed as “highly unbecoming” behaviour. The suspended Congress members were Gaurav Gogoi, K Suresh, Adhir Rajan Chowdhury, Ranjeet Ranjan, Sushmita Dev and MK Raghavan.
