250 hours wasted by disruptions during Parliament's Budget session: 10 points

Both Houses of Parliament were today adjourned sine die, with unabated protests virtually washing out most of the second phase of the Budget session. 

The notices of no-confidence motion moved by the opposition against the government could not be taken up in the Lok Sabha that witnessed protests by various parties.

While Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu asked the protestors not to make the Rajya Sabha a "clog in the wheel" of progress, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said they should keep in mind the larger interests of the nation.

The disruptions and adjournments were caused by protests over issues like special status to Andhra Pradesh, bank scams, demand for Cauvery water management board, vandalising of statues, review of the recent Supreme Court order on SC/ST Act and law and order situation in Kasganj in Uttar Pradesh.

Here are 10 important points of the Budget session: 

1. A total of nearly 250 working hours was wasted during Parliament's Budget session.

2. Merely five of 19 starred questions were replied to orally by Ministers in the Rajya Sabha, while 17 of the 580 such questions were answered in the Lok Sabha during the 29 sittings.

3. The second leg of the session, that started on March 5, had 22 sittings that were mostly disrupted.

4. In her summary report, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the House functioned for a total of 34 hours and 5 minutes during the 29 sittings.

5. A total of 127 hours and 45 minutes were affected by "interruptions and forced adjournments". Around 9 hours and 47 minutes went in to transact urgent government business in the Lower House, Mahajan said.

6. Of the 580 starred questions, answers were given to only 17 of them in the floor of the House, which translates into 0.58 questions being answered on an average each day. Written replies for remaining starred questions and 6,670 unstarred questions were tabled in the House.

7. Just five bills, including the crucial Finance Bill 2018 for which the Budget Session is convened, were passed and five were introduced during the Budget session in the Lok Sabha.

8. In Rajya Sabha, the House lost nearly three-fourths of its time to disruptions and adjournments. During the second leg of the session, the Rajya Sabha had 30 sittings in all. While it sat for 44 hours, the Upper House lost over 121 hours.

9. The Question Hour could not be taken up for 27 days "due to pandemonium and interruptions in the House over one or the other issue", Naidu said, noting that there was a "total breakdown" in communication among various sections of the House that was "at the root of the prolonged stalemate that ruined the session."

10. Due to the disruptions, the House could not debate the important Finance Bill 2018, but passed the payment of gratuity law without debate.