The Budget Session of Parliament concluded on Thursday with the Rajya Sabha passing the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development Bill to fund infrastructure projects. The Lok Sabha had passed it on Tuesday. The Budget Session was earlier scheduled to end on April 8.
In his valedictory remarks, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said the Upper House saw a productivity rate of more than 90 percent in the Budget Session. The House also bid farewell to three retiring members from Kerala — Vyalar Ravi, K K Ragesh and Abdul Wahab.
While giving a brief account of the performance of the House, Naidu said the upper house functioned for a total of 104 hours as against the total scheduled time of 116 hours. In the second part of the Budget session, both the houses started working simultaneously with relaxed social distancing norms. In the first part of the Budget session, the Rajya Sabha met in the first half of the day while Lok Sabha functioned in the afternoon session.
He also said a total of 21 hours and 26 minutes of the House was lost due to disruptions during this Session. However, the House compensated this loss and sat beyond the scheduled time for a total of 14 hours and 28 minutes to complete the legislative and other business.
Naidu also note that the high productivity witnessed during the last four sessions since June 2019, that is, 249th, 250th, 251st and 252nd Sessions has continued in this Session (253rd) as well. As regards legislative output, Naidu said the Rajya Sabha passed 19 bills during the session, which includes the Appropriation Bill and Finance Bill.
Around 34 hours and 4 minutes were spent on the discussion of the Government bills, which comes around 42 per cent of the total functioning time of this house, spent on the legislative business. He, however, expressed concern over issues such as less attendance of members and the duration of the meetings, which need further improvements.
In his observations before adjourning the proceedings of the Lok Sabha sine die, Bhartruhari Mehtab, who was in the chair, wished Speaker Om Birla a speedy recovery and informed members that the Speaker was stable. He had tested corona positive.”Several important bills were passed during the Session. I could not be present in the House during the last days of Session due to health reasons. Panel of Chairpersons conducted proceedings smoothly & Hon’ble Members also cooperated meaningfully. I express my gratitude to all,” Birla tweeted.
In Birla’s absence, a panel of chairpersons, including Mehtab, Rajendra Agrawal, Rama Devi, Meenakashi Lekhi and Midun Reddy, chaired the proceedings.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several cabinet ministers and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were present in the House. The first part of the Budget Session started on January 29 with the President’s address to joint sitting of both houses of Parliament.
The address was boycotted by over 20 Opposition parties, including the Congress, in support of the demand of the protesting farmers for the repeal of the three farm laws. The Union Budget was tabled on February 1.Thereafter, House proceedings were washed out for four consecutive days over the opposition’s demand for separate discussion on farm issues. To compensate the session’s lost time, the House sat till midnight for several days.
The House also gave its nod to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021. The Insurance (Amendment) Bill which increases foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in the insurance sector from 49 per cent to 74 per cent was passed in the House.
In his remarks before adjourning the house, Mahtab said despite disruptions, the Lok Sabha’s productivity during the Budget session stood at 114 per cent and the members also dealt with important issues by sitting till midnight on several occasions.
146 members participated in the discussion on the Union Budget for 14 hours and 42 minutes, he said.