Lok Sabha records 167% productivity despite Covid-19 protocols

In his concluding remarks before adjourning the House on Wednesday, Lok Sabha Spekaer Om Birla said the productivity of the session was a record high. The productivity of the House was 167 per cent, which was much higher than the past session, he said while thanking all the members, writes Deputy News Editor, Krishnanand Tripathi.

New Delhi:The fourth session of the 17th Lok Sabha ended on Wednesday evening following a 10-day non-stop working schedule, in which MPs cleared several important bills by burning midnight oil. The Lok Sabha, which was set to meet for 37 hours, clocked a working schedule of 60 hours in this session as the lower house also transacted business on Saturday and Sunday.

“Even during the global pandemic, the productivity of the House in this session was 167%, which is higher than several previous sessions,” said Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla.

Birla said this is for the first time in the parliamentary history of the country when members of both the houses of Parliament participated in the proceedings from six different places, which included both the houses of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha and also the four galleries of the Lok Sabha.

The Monsoon Session, which started on September 14, witnessed 10 consecutive sittings with a cumulative duration of 60 hours against the allotted time 37 hours.

Birla said more than two-third of time (68%) was used in the legislative business while the rest 32% was utilised in transacting non-legislative business.

Lok Sabha MPs debated the first batch of supplementary demands for grants for FY 2020-21 and excess demands for grants for FY 2016-17 for over four-and-a-half hours and they also cleared appropriation bills.

During the session, 16 government bills were reintroduced and a total of 25 bills were cleared in 10 sittings of the house, which also entailed discussion on these bills.

Crucial bills cleared by Lok Sabha in Monsoon session

The Lok Sabha cleared several important bills in the Monsoon session, including two agriculture bills and three labour codes. Lok Sabha members approved the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020; the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020; the Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020.

The Lok Sabha also cleared three bills to reform and amalgamate a multitude of labour laws in the country. The Industrial Relations Code, 2020; the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020; and the Code of Social Security, 2020 were passed by a voice vote in the lower house.

The House also cleared the Foreign Contribution Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2020, the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Second Amendment Bill), 2020.

In this session, the members were allowed to place unstarred questions on the table of the house and the government provided answers to 2,300 unstarred questions in the Lok Sabha in this session.

In this session, Lok Sabha members also raised 370 issues of public importance, including a long discussion that went into the midnight on September 20 in which 88 members raised the issues of public importance.

Lok Sabha members also raised 181 issues of public importance under rule 377 of the house.

The 10-day long Monsoon session took place at a time when the entire country has been reeling under the adverse impact of Covid-19 global pandemic that has killed over 90,000 people in the country while the global death toll has reached close to 1 million deaths.

The session took place at a time when Indian and Chinese armies have been engaged in a tense stand-off in eastern Ladakh region which necessitated defence minister Rajnath Singh to make a statement on the border situation in both the houses of Parliament.

“Ministers made 40 statements in the house on important issues, including statements on the issue of Covid-19 pandemic, MSP for the farm produce, and the statement on the developments on the Ladakh border,” Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla told the members.