Productivity just 27% in Rajya Sabha monsoon session's 1st week: Officials

The Rajya Sabha has reported productivity of 26.90 per cent in the first week of the ongoing monsoon session, officials said Saturday.

The Rajya Sabha Secretariat said the upper house transacted business only for 1 hour and 16 minutes during the first three days of the week, while it improved to 5 hours and 31 minutes during the last two days.

A total of 18 hours and 44 minutes of the scheduled sitting time of the House has been lost due to disruptions and forced adjournments, they said.

Two-and-a-half-hour discussion, accounting for 37 per cent of the total functional time on a Private Member's Bill on the Right to Health on Friday, the last day of the week, helped improve the productivity somewhat.

The Question Hour could be taken up only on the last two days for a total time of 1 hour and 50 minutes, amounting to 27 percent of the total functional time of the House, the RS Secretariat said.

The house saw disruption over opposition demand for taking up a discussion on price rise and GST hike under Rule 267, suspending rules for taking up this issue.

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu informed the House that it has been decided to take up a separate discussion on price rise and also spoke to some leaders of the opposition seeking return of normalcy in the House.

Officials said during the first week of the current session, 22 of the 75 listed Starred Questions were orally replied to in the House and 5 special mentions were made by the members.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems(Prevention of Unlawful Activities) Bill, 2022 was discussed for 42 minutes with eight members participating.

As many as nine Private Members' Bills were introduced during the week.

Thirty newly-elected members made and subscribed oath/affirmation in the House, the Secretariat said.