Rajya Sabha sat for 2 percent of scheduled time

NEW DELHI - The Rajya Sabha didn’t have a single full day of work during the just concluded winter session of parliament that was adjourned sine die on its last day Monday following relentless opposition protests against a telecom scam.

During the entire session, only one full day of work was conducted in the Lok Sabha (Nov 9 when the session started), and not one such day in the Rajya Sabha.

The Lok Sabha worked for 5.3 percent of the scheduled hours and the Rajya Sabha for 2.1 percent, according to PRS Legislative Research.

In the winter session, the Lok Sabha passed only two pending bills but there were none in the Rajya Sabha.

The bills passed in the lower house relate to changing the name of Orissa state to Odisha and alteration of the Oriya language to Odiya.

The government also introduced nine legislative bills in either house during the session.

There were 13 Government bills listed for consideration and passing including those related to prevention of torture, the wakf amendment, the anti-hijacking amendment, the right of children to free and compulsory education amendment, the reservation for women in panchayats and municipalities and reservation for in legislative bodies.

But the government did manage to get parliament’s nod for crucial supplementary spending bills by voice vote, but without a debate amid noisy protests that dominated the over month-long session.