RS Chairman compliments MPs for 'disruption-free' day, hopes 'spirit will continue'

By Payal Mehta
New Delhi [India], February 3 : Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday complimented the MPs for a 'disruption-free' day in the House on Wednesday during the debate on Motion of Thanks to the President and hoped that the spirit will continue to prevail throughout the session.
After nearly a year of 41 sittings spread over four sessions, the Rajya Sabha had a disruption-free business on Wednesday.
Delighted to watch "quality debate", Naidu said, "After a long time, Rajya Sabha witnessed disruption-free proceedings yesterday. I was delighted to watch quality debates on the Motion of Thanks to the President."
"Debates of yesterday were marked by effective a session by the ruling party achievements on one hand and contestations by opposition MPs on the other hand. This is the advantage of the smooth functioning of the House," he added, while also adding that he hopes the spirit will continue to prevail for the remaining part of this session.
This comes in at a very crucial juncture because the last couple of sessions have been extremely stormy in the Rajya Sabha.
In fact, in the last Winter Session of Parliament, 12 members of the Opposition party were suspended for the entire session for having creative destruction in the Monsoon Session.
Throughout the entire part of the Winter Session, the opposition parties continued to disrupt and on several locations refused to participate in the proceedings.
According to Rajya Sabha data, the last five sessions of Parliament were adjourned ahead of their scheduled time losing a total of 29 sittings. Of these five sessions, at least three were lost due to the spread of COVID-19 and one because political parties wanted to go for election campaigning in April.
Over the last seven years, of the 25 sessions held since the 231st in June 2014, 14 have fallen short of the schedule accounting for 56 per cent of the total.
Three of them were affected by the pandemic outbreak. Out of the total scheduled sittings of 507 during this period, the House lost a total of 39 sittings (7.69 per cent of the total scheduled sittings).
Earlier on Wednesday, Naidu had urged the Members of the House to ensure a productive Budget Session as it was taking place at the confluence of the historic 75th year of Independence and 70 years of electoral journey of free India.
During his observations in the House, Naidu had highlighted the significance of the context of this session and urged all sections to ensure the best performance of the House during this session by reminding the Members of 93.50 per cent of productivity during the Budget Session last year.
The 2022 Budget Session of the Parliament commenced on January 31 with President Ram Nath Kovind's address. The first part of the budget session is being held from January 31 to February 11 and the second part will take place from March 14 to April 8.