281 Hours, 36 Bills: Modi 2.0 Produces Most Productive Parliamentary Session in 6 Decades

New Delhi: The Parliament, in its first session after the Lok Sabha elections, passed not only landmark bills like repealing of Article 370, geographical reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir, Triple Talaq Bill, new Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill, but also created the record for maximum Bills passed in the last 67 years.

Lok Sabha passed 36 Bills, out of which, in seven cases, there was recorded voting (21 per cent) at some point during the discussion. This is higher than the 16th Lok Sabha, in which, recorded voting was called for 8 per cent of the Bills.

In the first Budget session after the newly elected Modi government took charge, Lok Sabha worked for 281 hours, which is 135 per cent of the scheduled hours. It is higher than any other session in the past 20 years. The session was extended by the Centre in order to complete legislative business.

Additionally, Lok Sabha spent 46 per cent of its time on legislative business, according to PRS Legislative. The corresponding figure for Rajya Sabha is 51 per cent.

Thirty eight Bills were introduced in the Parliament during the session. Twenty eight of these were passed by both Houses, the highest for any session in the last 10 years. None of the Bills introduced in this session were referred to any committee.

Out of 28 Bills passed by the Parliament, five had been scrutinised by committees in some form during the period of the previous Lok Sabha. A total of 36 per cent of questions were answered orally in the Lok Sabha; the highest in the last 20 years. Question Hour functioned for 95 per cent of its scheduled time in the Lok Sabha and 65 per cent in the Rajya Sabha during this session.

Ninety four per cent first-term MPs participated in a debate during the session; 96 per cent women MPs participated.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 303 members in the 543-member Lok Sabha and the NDA, of which it has 353.

However, the party and the alliance are still in minority in the Rajya Sabha.

Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla also put out a tweet after the House was adjourned congratulation the members on the achievement.

The government’s spree of legislation was criticised by the Opposition parties who said it was bypassing the standard practice of sending key bills for parliamentary scrutiny.