Work is Worship, But, Only Outside Parliament..

Only one Bill the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill passed in the session. Current Lok Sabha worst performer in history

by Mr. M.R. MADHAVAN, PRS

The penultimate session of the 15 Lok Sabha ended 2  days ahead of schedule, with only one Bill the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill passed in the session.

The last session is expected to be short & at most pass a few bills.

Effectively, the 15Lok Sabha has concluded most of its business. Heres the key fact of the 15 Lok Sabha it represents the worst period of Indias 60-odd years of parliamentary history.

No Lok Sabha since Independence that ran its term has performed worse. Each of the first three Lok Sabhas from 1952 to 1967 sat for over 600 days and for over 3,700 hours.

With a 7-10 day short interim-budget session remaining, the current Lok Sabha has met for just  345 days. And much of even the short schedules were affected by disruptions: over 35 % of the scheduled time was lost. The 15 Lok Sabha has put in just 1,335 hours till now, which is less than 40 % of the average time logged by the first 3 Lok Sabhas.

As a result, parliamentary activity suffered in many ways. The current Lok Sabha has passed just 163 bills, the lowest ever. Contrast this with the first three, which passed 330 on average, or even the 13 and 14 Lok Sabhas, which passed 297 & 248 bills, respectively.

As of now,126 Bills are awaiting parliamentary approval. These include important  bills across sectors: education, health, agriculture, insurance, commodity markets, direct taxes, goods and services tax, reservation for women in all 3 levels of representative bodies, anti-corruption and service delivery, microfinance etc.

Each day of Parliament starts with the Question Hour, which provides MPs with the opportunity of holding the government accountable for its policies and actions by asking Questions to ministers.During the 15 Lok Sabha, 60 % of the time scheduled for Question Hour was lost, and only 10 % of the starred questions were answered orally.

Another key role of Parliament is to allocate the governments financial resources through the budgetary process. Over 95 % of the expenditure budget has been passed without discussion in the five budgets since 2009. This year, the entire expenditure was granted without any debate. What led to such a poor record There are some fundamental design issues. Parliament sessions are held as per the convenience of the government of the day.

About the author..

The Author Mr. M.R. MADHAVAN is President, PRS

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