In the 17th Lok Sabha, only one in eight or 13 per cent of bills passed were referred to any committees--- lowest in the last fifteen years.
A few of the most significant Bills: the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021, was discussed for a total of four minutes before being passed in the Lok Sabha and for eight minutes in the Rajya Sabha. Similarly, The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which links Aadhaar numbers with voter cards, was passed in the Lok Sabha after 26 minutes of discussion.
Until now, the 17th Lok Sabha has passed 35 per cent of bills in less than 30 minutes. On average, Lok Sabha discussed a bill for over two and a half hours before passing it, and Rajya Sabha for two hours. Lok Sabha spent nearly five hours discussing and passing the second supplementary budget (8.6 per cent of the 2021-22 budget estimate), according to PRS, a non-profit legislative research organisation.
The productivity of Lok Sabha during the winter session was approximately 77 per cent, and that of Rajya Sabha was nearly 43 per cent. Further, Lok Sabha lost up to 18 hours 48 minutes to disruptions and worked for 83 hours and 12 minutes through the 18 sittings this session.
The Rajya Sabha, on the other hand, conducted business for 45 hours 34 minutes out of a scheduled sitting time of 95 hours 6 minutes and its longest sitting was for over five hours which is an hour less than the daily scheduled time. More than 19 hours in Lok Sabha and one hour in Rajya Sabha were spent on non-legislative debates during this session.
“A total of 99 MPs participated in the 12-hour-26-minute-long discussion on the COVID19, in which they shared with the House the best work done in their respective areas during the COVID period,” said Om Birla, Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
During this winter session, in Lok Sabha, Question Hour functioned for 66 per cent of its scheduled time, and 26 per cent of questions were answered orally. In Rajya Sabha, Question Hour functioned for 38 per cent of its scheduled time, and 21 per cent questions were answered orally. No questions were answered orally in Lok Sabha for two days, while no oral questions were taken up in the Rajya Sabha for eight days.
(With inputs from agencies)