New Delhi, Dec 14: The Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die on Friday marking the conclusion of second Session of the present House.
Speaker Om Birla read out the details of the business conducted during the Winter Session which commenced on November 18.
The Speaker said productivity of the Lower House during the Session was 115 per cent. He said
as many as 934 matters of public importance were raised during the 20 sittings of the House which ran for 130 hours and 45 minutes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior lawmakers including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and floor leaders of other parties were present.
Members of treasury bench and other Opposition parties listened to the Speaker’s valedictory address with the exception of the Congress lawmakers, who were on their feet raising slogans for BJP members and Ministers making strong comment on Rahul Gandhi.
Earlier the House proceedings were adjourned twice after BJP members and union ministers created pandemonium over Congress leader’s controversial remarks on women.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who is also Deputy Leader of the House, said “People who make such remarks (against women) have no right to be member of this House”.
In his address, Speaker Om Birla thanked the Prime Minister, floor leaders of all other parties and members for their cooperation in transacting the business of the House.
He said under Rule 377, as many as 364 matters of public importance were raised including 121 taken in the House and rest 243 were laid on the table.
Four new members took oath on the first day of the session, he said.
During the Demand for Grants, the debate took place for 5 hour 5 min, the Speaker said.
He said in all 18 bills were introduced and 14 bills passed by the House. On an average 7.36 questions were taken up during Question Hour and total 140 questions were responded orally.
Mr Birla said on November 27, all 20 starred questions were taken up, thus creating a record. On the same day, 934 matters were raised during Zero Hour.
On an average, 58.37 matters were taken during Zero Hour, he informed, adding that various Standing Committees presented 48 proposals.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said the Winter Session of the House witnessed substantial improvement with the passage of 15 Bills as the session clocked 100 per cent productivity.
In the valedictory address to the Elders, Mr Naidu said while the last session recorded productivity of 104 per cent by availing more than the available time for transacting the business, this session too has clocked 100 per cent productivity.
This is perhaps, for the first time that this House has recorded 100 per cent productivity for two successive sessions.
As against the total scheduled available time of 108 hours 33 minutes during this session with 20 sittings, the House functioned for 107 hours 11 minutes resulting in a productivity of 99 per cent.
A total of 11 hours 47 minutes, accounting for about 11 per cent of the available time of the House has been lost due to interruptions.
Spurred by the sense of duty, the Members, however, sat for 10 hours 52 minutes beyond the scheduled hours, resulting in productivity of close to 100 per cent during this session.
To give you an idea of the distribution of time on different items of business, 39 per cent of the total
functional time has been spent on legislative business, 25.4 per cent on raising and discussing matters of urgent public importance under Short Duration Discussion, two Calling Attention Notices, Zero Hour and Special Mentions, 13 per cent on Question Hour meant for ensuring accountability of the executive and 5 per cent on Private Members’ Bills.
The Chairman informed that 171 of the Starred Questions, accounting for 67 per cent of the total 255 questions scheduled to be taken up have been orally answered during this session.
This comes to 9.5 questions orally answered per day which is the best performance in the last 49 years since 1971, for which data is available. The previous best has been 8.71 starred questions orally answered per day during the 198th session in 2003.
The House was adjourned Sine die.
