How Productive Has Parliament Been This Winter Session?

A regular feature of Parliament this winter session has been disruption. The lower and upper Houses of Parliament have been repeatedly adjourned over the tussle between the opposition and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and some of its allies on the topic of demonetisation.

So, how productive have the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha been since the start of the winter session? The numbers displayed on the website of PRS Legislative Research paint a dismal picture. Lok Sabha’s productivity in the winter session has been as low as 14 per cent. Rajya Sabha, on the other hand, has registered only a slightly better productivity at 20 per cent.

The numbers are grimmer if you consider the exact time in hours that the two Houses of Parliament have functioned in this session. While Rajya Sabha has functioned for 18.5 hours, Lok Sabha’s productive affairs have spanned just 13.6 hours. The actual legislative work in Lok Sabha has made up for only 4 per cent of the House’s affairs, while Rajya Sabha has registered 1 per cent legislative work.

Compare these numbers to that from the 2015 winter session of Parliament. Lok Sabha’s productivity then was 98 per cent and Rajya Sabha’s 50 per cent. In terms of the hours of functioning, the lower House registered 110.6 hours last year and Rajya Sabha 59.9 hours.

There is still time left in the winter session for Parliament to make up for lost productivity, but it unfortunately won’t amount to much in any case.

So, like President Pranab Mukherjee angrily quipped today (8 December) in Parliament, “For god’s sake, do your job. You are meant to transact business in Parliament.”