New Delhi: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu lauded the efforts of the Standing Committees that have been discussing the Demand for Grants.
During the 30-day break between the two sessions Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committees (DRSCs) have examined the Demands for Grants of various ministries for the year 2022-23.
Speaking on day one of the second part of the Budget Session, the Rajya Sabha Chairman said, "The eight DRSCs of Rajya Sabha have held a total of 21 meetings for a total duration of 73 hours 33 minutes and examined the Demands for Grants of 18 Ministries encompassing 32 Departments. I am happy to share with you all that the average duration of these 21 meetings was 3 hours and 30 minutes per meeting which is the best in this regard so far. This marked an increase of one hour seventeen minutes per meeting, a rise of 56 per cent over that of last year."
"I am glad to note that three committees met for an average duration of more than four hours per meeting. The Committee on Education reported the highest average duration of 4 hours 48 meeting per meeting, followed by the one on Personnel and Public Grievances with 4 hours 39 minutes and the Committee on Commerce with 4 hours 8 minutes," Naidu said.
Expressing concern over the decline of the average attendance of meetings in the recent Naidu said, "I understand that the recent Assembly elections were a major factor that pulled down the attendance. I propose to soon hold another meeting with the Chairmen of all these eight committees on their functioning over the last five years." The Chairman also mentioned that the first part of the Budget session which had 10 seatings was an extremely positive one. There were no forced adjournments of the House during the first part. As a result, the productivity of the House was 101.40 per cent. The last eight full sittings of the first part of this Session were free of disruptions and forced adjournments, for the first time in the last about three years.
The second part of the Budget session got underway today and will go on till eighth April with a total of 19 seatings.
