16th Lok Sabha: Decline in number of sittings but more time spent on legislative business

The present Lok Sabha witnessed a general decline in the number of sitting days, but spent 32 per cent of its time on legislative business, which was higher than the average of previous Houses.

Piloting the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019, Home Minister Rajnath Singh told the Opposition that the bill was not against the provisions of the Constitution and would give succour to persecuted minorities in the three neighbouring countries.

NEW DELHI: The present Lok Sabha witnessed a general decline in the number of sitting days, but spent 32 per cent of its time on legislative business, which was higher than the average of previous Houses. The 16th Lok Sabha worked for a total of 1,615 hours, 20 per cent more than the 15th Lok Sabha when the UPA was in power. However, this was 40 per cent lower than the average of all full term Lok Sabhas, which is 2,689 hours. According to data complied by PRS Legislative Research, the present Lok Sabha during its various sessions between June, 2014 and February this year sat for 331 days. On average, past full term Lok Sabhas sat for 468 days. Issues like the Andhra Pradesh reorganisation law, Rafale jet deal, alleged misuse of investigative agencies, economic offenders, Cauvery water dispute were raised by the opposition in both the Houses, causing disruptions. Wednesday was the last day of the Budget session, the last session of the NDA government ahead of Lok Sabha elections due this summer. This Lok Sabha lost 16 per cent  of its scheduled time to disruptions, better than the 15th Lok Sabha which lost 37 per cent of its time. But it fared badly to the 14th Lok Sabha which lost only 13% of its time to disruptions. (With PTI inputs)