Rajya Sabha will have an additional 19 hours of business time during the second phase of Parliament’s Budget session

Officials indicated on March 12 that with the Budget session of Parliament commencing on Monday, the Rajya Sabha will have 19 hours more time for business than before. During the 19 scheduled sittings, the House will sit from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., including a one-hour lunch break, after sitting from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the first half of the session.

According to an official release, the Upper House would have 64 hours and 30 minutes for transacting the government’s legislative business and taking up topics of public concern during the second half of the session as a result of the one-hour increase in sitting time every sitting.

Rajya Sabha will have four days of Private Business

According to Rajya Sabha authorities, the House will have four days for Private Members’ Business, and the Question Hour will remain at an hour, while the Zero Hour, which was reduced to half an hour during the first part of the term, will now be an hour per sitting. After a 30-day vacation, the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committees (DRSCs) assessed the Demands for Grants of various Ministries and Departments, the Budget session resumes. 

During the Rajya Sabha’s recess on Monday, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu is expected to provide an account of the activities of the Rajya Sabha’s eight DRSCs. The first portion of the Budget session, which consisted of ten sittings, ended on February 11, with the House claiming a productivity rate of 101.4 percent.

After the President’s address to both chambers and the presentation of the Union Budget for 2022-23 on the first two days, the Rajya Sabha saw eight full days of uninterrupted sitting without interruptions or forced adjournments for the first time in over three years. The previous time this happened was during the first 13 sittings of the 2019 Monsoon session. Given the time available and priorities such as debates on the Motion of Thanks to the President and the Union Budget, the government proposed no legislative business during the first part of the Budget session.

Mr. Naidu had encouraged members during the initial portion of the session to help the House run smoothly so that it might improve on the 94 percent productivity of last year’s Budget session. 

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