Passage of the long-pending GST Bill and an unanimous resolution on Kashmir were the highlights of the “highly productive” Monsoon Session of Parliament, which was adjourned sine die on Friday after 20 sittings. While 13 legislations were passed by the lower House, the Upper House approved 14 laws. Interestingly, though the productivity of the lok Sabha was higher than the Rajya Sabha in the Monsoon Session its performance was less than what it had achieved in the Budget Session.
Hailing the Session as “highly productive”, Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari said the House debated issues of “national concern”, including the situations arising out of inflation, Kashmir violence and attacks on Dalits. Incidentally, the Monsoon Session of Parliament last year was a stormy affair, which had witnessed several disruptions over the lalit Modi controversy and the Vyapam scam.
Echoing similar feelings, lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan noted that while the lower House lost over 6 hours and 33 minutes of time due to interruptions followed by forced adjournments, it sat late for over 18 hours to discuss various important issues.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in both the Houses, which were adjourned sine die one after another. After Rajya Sabha was adjourned sine die, Modi, Congress leader Manmohan Singh, and some other leaders went to the Chairman's chamber to thank him for conducting House proceedings.
The Session also witnessed an AAP leader Bhagwant Mann being barred from attending the lok Sabha after he filmed and uploaded a video of Parliament complex on social media, which is being probed into by a Parliamentary Committee set up by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
Besides the GST Constituional Amendment, the Bills which were passed, include Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Bill, Taxation laws (Amendment) Bill, Factories (Amendment) Bill, Employee's Compensation (Amendment) Bill and the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) bill.
While the RS deliberated for more than 112 hours during 20 sittings, the lok Sabha sat for 121 hours. As many as 59 elected, re-elected and nominated members joined the RS. Ansari said the RS held an “animated debate” while considering and passing the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014, to pave the way for rollout of a new indirect tax regime, GST. “The incidents of violence in Kashmir engaged the undivided attention of the House. The debates took ten hours of the House in two separate days,” Ansari said.
The lower House also took up four discussions, including violence in Kashmir, price rise, sustainable development goals and atrocities against dalits.
Both the Houses passed an unanimous resolution on the Kashmir Valley. It appealed to all sections of the society in J&K, to work for the early restoration of normalcy and unanimously resolved to restore confidence among people in general and youth in particular. It also resolved there can be no compromise with the country's unity, integrity and national security.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said while the productivity of the lok Sabhs was 110.84 per cent, that of the Rajya Sabha was 99.54 per cent. The Rajya Sabha had recorded a productivity of 91 per cent, lower than what it achieved in the latest Session.