Trend of disruptions in House disturbing, act to further people’s trust: Naidu tells MPs

Naidu, in his opening remarks to the Rajya Sabha, pointed out the voters’ turnout in the last 70 years have increased from 45 per cent in elections to the first Lok Sabha in 1951-52 to over 67 per cent in the polls held in 2019.

“This marks an increase of 50 per cent in voter participation. The voter turn in the polls to State Assemblies is even higher. This goes to prove that the citizens of our country continue to repose their faith in our democracy. However, our legislatures and the elected representatives of the people do not seem to be reciprocating in equal measure with the functioning of legislatures declining over the years,” he said.

As India is marking the 75th year of its Independence, he said “In this historic year, the need of the hour is for the 5,000 MPs, MLAs and MLCs to resolve to return to the people the favour they have been relentlessly doing by nurturing our democracy. The only way of doing so is to conduct ourselves in a manner befitting the trust the citizens still have in our parliamentary democracy”.

On the functioning of the House, Naidu said it has lost 52.10 per cent of the “valuable sitting time” due to disruptions and forced adjournments in the Winter Session in December. And in the Monsoon Session before that, the loss of functional time was as high as 70.40 per cent, he said.

“This trend of disruptions is highly disturbing. I refer to the same with a fervent hope that we all reflect on the same and conduct ourselves in a manner befitting the historic time that we are passing through,” he added.

“I would like to remind you all that during the Budget session last year, this august House has clocked productivity of 93.50 per cent. The spirit of the occasion demands that this House turns out the best performance during this important Budget session,” he said asking members to “ensure a safe and productive Budget session.”

He said the Budget session offers broad guidance to the course of economic progress over the next financial year.

“This Budget session acquires added significance as the nation is collectively keen and endeavouring to lift the national economy from out of the adverse impact of Covid pandemic over the last two years. Threats to the economy are still continuing with the

third wave of the pandemic at present. The world is living under uncertainty on account of this pandemic. This reminds all of us of our responsibilities to do the needful to overcome the challenge and secure the socio-economic transformation of our country which is a work in progress,” he said.

Naidu said it was also heartening that the average attendance of MPs in meetings of the Parliamentary Standing Committees has increased from 47.64 per cent in 2016-17 to 48.79 per cent in 2019-20.

“It fell marginally during 2020-21 but the average attendance in 255 meetings during 2019-21 has been 47 per cent, despite the long spell of Covid pandemic and the fact that special meeting allowance was discontinued. This is a very welcome improvement showing the deep commitment of each one of you to your parliamentary duties,” he said.

Naidu said the average duration of meetings of the eight standing committees of the Rajya Sabha has also “improved” from “1 hour 48 minutes in 2016-17 to 2 hours 10 minutes during 2019-20 marking an increase of 22 minutes on an average per meeting.”

“The Committee on Home Affairs reported the highest increase of 66 minutes per meeting followed by the Committee on Transport with 44 minutes increase; Commerce-42 minutes; Education -29 minutes and Science & Technology-22 minutes….Such substantial increase in the duration of meetings meant that the resources spent on the meetings of these committees are being better utilised,” he said.