Monsoon session: RS productivity falls further to 16 per cent in 2nd week

The productivity of Rajya Sabha fell to 1649 per cent during the second week of Monsoon session from 2690 per cent during the first with the House witnessing repeated interruptions adjournments and also suspension of 23 Opposition membersChairman M Venkaiah Naidu has expressed disappointment saying obstruction is destruction of parliamentary democracyThe cumulative productivity of the House for the first two weeks of this session has been a low of 2158 per cent according to officialsDuring the 10 sittings so far the Rajya Sabha functioned for 11 hours 8 minutes out of the scheduled 51 hours 35 minutes losing 40 hours 45 minutes due to disruptions and forced disruptions the RS Secretariat saidNo Bill could be passed with discussion on the Weapons of Mass Destruction Bill still to be concluded No Zero Hour submissions could be made No Special Mentions on eight days and no Question Hour on six days during the first two weeks they addedReferring to the disruptions in the House Chairman Naidu has said effective functioning of parliament is a collective responsibility of the government and the OppositionThe world is looking at India which is on the move Political differences should not be allowed to affect the functioning of the House he said while inaugurating a twoday Orientation programme for the newly elected members of Rajya Sabha on Saturday Naidu stressed that a sense of mutual respect and accommodation would ensure discipline that enhances the dignity of the House Disruptions only hurt the interests of the parliamentariansNoting that members rushing into the Well of the House and showing placards is not graceful to parliamentary democracy Naidu said there were two opinions on showing the same to the people through live telecast One being that such scenes may not be telecast while the other being that the people may see for themselves the reality in the legislatures to make their own assessmentThe Chairman said he was in view of not showing unruly scenesBoth Houses of Parliament have witnessed unruly scenes during this Monsoon session with Opposition members trying to corner the government over multiple issues including price rise Goods and Service Tax the Agnipath defence recruitment scheme and the alleged misuse of Central agenciesOver two dozens Opposition MPs were suspended from both the Houses for their alleged misbehaviourThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever