Amid continuous ruckus by the opposition, the productivity of Rajya Sabha hit a low of 37.60 per cent during the third week of the ongoing winter session pulling down the functionality of the House for the first three weeks to 46.70.

According to Rajya Sabha Secretariat, the productivity of Rajya Sabha was 49.70 per cent and 52.50 per cent for the first and second weeks respectively.

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During the third week, the House could function for only 10 hours 14 minutes of the total scheduled sitting time of 27 hours 11 minutes, losing 62.40 per cent of available time on account of disruptions and forced adjournments on the issue of suspension of 12 members of the House.

During the third week, Question Hour which is meant for seeking the accountability of the Government has suffered the most with only four of the 75 listed Starred Questions orally answered by the concerned ministers, said the RS Secretariat

Only 11.40 per cent of the time available for Question Hour was utilized during the week. On the other hand, 62.70 per cent of the functional time has been spent on the government’s legislative business. Three Bills were passed and returned during the week after discussing for a total time of 6 hours and 25 minutes in which 33 members participated.

A short duration discussion on ‘Situation arising out of the cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19’ taken up during the week remained inconclusive. This discussion is listed for resumption on Monday.

RS Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu adjourned the House on Friday last after 17 minutes of Zero Hour urging the government and the opposition parties to resolve the stalemate on the suspension issue.

During the 15 sittings of the first three weeks of the ongoing monsoon session, the House functioned for less than an hour per day for six sittings. The productivity of the House has been 75 per cent or more on six days.

About 42 per cent of the functional time of the House has been spent on the Government’s legislative business passing a total of eight Bills so far. Only about 18 per cent of the time has been spent on the Question Hour with only 56 of the 217 listed questions orally answered, said the RS Secretariat statement.

So far, 81 Zero Hour and 47 Special Mentions were made in the House during the three weeks of winter session.

The Mediation Bill, 2021 seeking to promote resolution of disputes including commercial is listed for the introduction on Monday in the Rajya Sabha.

The Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2021 as passed by Lok Sabha has been listed for consideration and passing on Monday.
The winter session of the Parliament is likely to conclude on December 23.