NEW DELHI, May 12:
Rajya Sabha, which was adjourned for the day today as a mark of respect towards sitting Congress member Praveen Rashtrapal who passed away, will now have a sitting tomorrow to complete its original schedule.
A decision was taken yesterday to curtail the session of Lok Sabha by two days and Rajya Sabha by one day. Accordingly, the session in Lok Sabha was yesterday brought to an end, two days before its scheduled culmination.
According to the plan, the Rajya Sabha was also to be adjourned sine die today after the customary farewell speech as 58 Rajya Sabha MPs have retired from the House. A number of those retired have been renominated.
The Budget Session of Parliament had begun on February 23 and concluded on March 16. There was the scheduled recess between the first and second part.
However, the session was prorogued to allow promulgation of an Ordinance to bring and pass a Vote on Account for Uttarakhand, which was under President’s rule.
An Ordinance cannot be promulgated when Parliament is in session. So, the house was prorogued and the second part of the Budget Session began as a new session on April 25. This session was to end on May 13 as per the schedule.
However, it was curtailed in view of the last leg of campaigning for assembly elections in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, besides the fact that the Government had already completed the important legislative business it planned to accomplish in this session.
10 bills, including the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 and the Anti-Hijacking Bill, were passed during the three-week session in Lok Sabha which saw no adjournment unlike in the Rajya Sabha which had to be adjourned several times due to disruptions.
The Eighth Session of the 16th Lok Sabha, which commenced on April 25, had 13 sittings spread over 92 hours and 21 minutes.
“I am happy to inform you that in the recent past this is the first session in which House was not adjourned even for a single minute due to interruptions and I thank the entire House for cooperation extended to the Chair,” Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had said in her valedictory address yesterday.
It was the 239th session of Rajya Sabha. Congress and Opposition outnumber the Government in the Upper House, which saw repeated adjournments on a number of days on issues like the imposition of President’s Rule in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh and AgustWestland deal.
After the passage of Finance Bill yesterday, there was, however, virtually no business left for the Government.
Concluding the session early was being debated for the last few days, Parliament sources said.
Sources said Rajya Sabha would also have been adjourned sine die yesterday itself but since 58 members of the House had retired, it was decided to adjourn the House after the customary farewell speech on Thursday.
However, as the Congress member of Rajya Sabha Praveen Rashtrapal died in New Delhi early Thursday after suffering a massive heart attack, the Upper House was adjourned today after paying respects to the departed soul, immediately after the House convened.
Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari announced the news of the demise of Rashtrapal and adjourned the House for the day as a mark of respect. (PTI)
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