NEW DELHI: The two-part budget session starting Monday offers a less than 80 hours window for the transaction of government business and for discussion of important public issues in the Rajya Sabha, said an official statement.
“The Budget session of Parliament beginning tomorrow (January 31) offers only a seventy nine and a half hours window for the Government’s legislative agenda and for taking up issues of immediate public concern over the scheduled 29 sittings of both the Houses,” Rajya Sabha Secretariat said in the statement.
Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu has convened a virtual meeting of leaders of parties and groups in the House at 5.00 pm on Monday to discuss the agenda for this Budget session.
Presidential Address
On Monday, the President will address the members of both the Houses after which copies of his address will be laid on the Tables of both the Houses. For this purpose, Rajya Sabha will meet at 2.30 pm on Monday. On the second day, the Union Budget for 2022-23 will be presented in the Lok Sabha by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman and a copy will be laid on the Table of Rajya Sabha soon thereafter.
Officials said the first part of the Budget session will have 10 sittings between January 31 and February 11 while 19 sittings are scheduled for the second part between March 14 and April 8. A total of 135 hours of sitting time is available for Rajya Sabha for transacting various items of business during the 27 sittings scheduled during the February 2 to April 8 period. This is just 5 hours per day.
Of this, the first part of the session with 40 hours accounts for about 30% of the total scheduled sitting time while the second part with 95 hours accounts for about 70%.
Zero hours reduced to 30 minutes
Rajya Sabha will have Zero Hour reduced by half to 30 minutes per day with a total time of 13 hours 30 minutes for raising issues of public importance besides laying of papers and reports during 27 sittings. Question Hour has been allocated 27 hours. A total of 15 hours time is scheduled for Private Members’ business on six days during the session. During the first week of the second part of the session, Private Members’ Bills will be taken up on Thursday as Friday being a holiday.
Officials said it leaves only 79 hours 30 minutes for considering and passing of the Government Bills besides discussing the issues of immediate public concern under the Calling Attention Notices and Short Duration Discussions. Discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President for his Address to the Members of both the Houses and on the Union Budget FY 2022-23 constitute the major items of business of the House.
During the Budget session of 2021, discussion for 15 hours 37 minutes on the Motion of Thanks to the President and a 10 hours 43 minutes long discussion on the Union Budget FY 2021-22 in the Rajya Sabha accounted for more than half of the total time available during the first part of the session.
The Budget session beginning on Monday is the sixth to be held since the outbreak of Covid-19 global pandemic in January 2020. The Budget session of 2020 (the 251st session of Rajya Sabha) was curtailed by 8 sittings on that count. According to officials, the 252nd session, the first to be held under the Covid protocol with staggered sittings of both the Houses was curtailed by 8 sittings and the Budget session of 2021 (the 253rd session of the Rajya Sabha) was shortened by 10 sittings for the same reason.
Rajya sabha clocked a productivity of 47.90 per cent during the last 255th session and of only 29.60 per cent during the 254th. The House, however, reported high productivity of 93.50% during the last year’s Budget session that had 23 sittings, the 253rd session of the Rajya Sabha.
