78 hours of business lost: Rajya Sabha adjourns sine die

Rajya Sabha adjourned sine die late on Wednesday after passing the historic Constitution amendment bill to provide 10 per cent reservation to economically weaker section in general category.

The winter session, which began on December 11, witnessed several hours of disruptions on various issues ranging from Rafale jet controversy, agrarian crisis to Cauvery river issue.

The Rajya Sabha was originally scheduled to adjourn on Tuesday.

However, the session was extended for a day to take up the Constitutional (124th) Amendment bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha a day before.

Vice Chairman Harivansh regretted that 78 hours of business were lost due to disruptions and that the House functioned for only 27 hours.

A total of five bills were introduced and four were passed.

“Out of the 285 starred questions admitted, only 31 could be answered orally and others could not be addressed. Only 38 matters could be raised by the members,” he said, adding that just nine special mentions were made in the entire winter session of Parliament in the house.

“This is the sad reflection of the functioning of the Upper House,” he said, adding that the House saw continuous disruptions of the proceedings and members could not raise matters of urgent public importance.

Members were deprived from listing statements from the home minister on devastation caused by cyclones, he added.

The House paid obituaries to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chaterjee and Parliamentary Affairs and Fertiliser
Minister Ananth Kumar, among others.

Parliament is again scheduled to meet on January 31 for the Budget session, which is expected to be the last of the current government.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is likely to present his sixth and the present government’s last budget, which will be an interim budget ahead of the general election scheduled in April-May.