Why this budget session was the most productive in decades

Highlights

  • Ín the just concluded budget session, the Lok Sabha worked for about 135 per cent of the scheduled hours, while Rajya Sabha worked for 103 per cent
  • As many as 30 bills were passed by both houses of Parliament
  • A whopping 36% of questions were answered orally in Lok Sabha, the most since 1999
NEW DELHI: This budget session was one of the busiest sessions in the past 20 years. Both houses spent nearly half their time on legislative business, passing 30 bills and working more than 70 hours extra. A look at how the session panned out.
ALMOST EVERY WOMAN MP PARTICIPATED THIS SESSION

LOK SABHA BREAKS RECORD FOR MOST HOURS WORKED IN LAST 20 HOURS
In this session, Lok Sabha spent 281 hrs, or about 135% of the time it was scheduled to work — the most extra time spent working since 2000. In the past 20 years, Lok Sabha has worked only 80% of the total scheduled work hours on average. On the other hand, Rajya Sabha spent 195 hours working, about 103% of the scheduled working hours.

MOST BILLS PASSED BY BOTH HOUSES THIS SESSION IN PAST DECADE
This Parliament’s first session passed as many bills as the last seven sessions of the previous government. Indicative of the number of contentious bills passed, both houses required recorded or ballot paper votes to pass 14 bills. In most cases, a simple voice vote is enough to pass a bill 21% of this session’s LS bills were passed after a recorded vote and 23% for the RS. In the previous Lok Sabha, just 8% and 6% of LS and RS bill, respectively required recorded votes. No bill introduced in this session were referred to a Committee.

PARLIAMENT SPENT ALMOST HALF ITS TIME ON LEGISLATIVE MATTERS
While Lok Sabha spent 46% of it time on legislative business, that figure was 52%for Rajya Sabha. A whopping 36% of questions were answered orally in Lok Sabha, the most since 1999.

MANY KEY BILLS WERE PASSED NEAR THE END OF THE SESSION
Initially expected to end July 26, the Lok Sabha session was extended to August 7. Speaker Om Birla adjourned Lok Sabha a day early, calling this session “the most productive since 1952”.


Source: PRS Legislative Research
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