Naidu calls for productive second half of Budget session

New Delhi, March 14: Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday expressed concern over the low attendance of members in the Parliamentary standing committee meetings and also called for a productive second part of the Budget session.

Referring to the first part of the Budget session, he said that the first half had a good productivity of around 101.40 per cent, adding that the members should attend the proceedings of the House to make it more productive.

In his observations made in the House on Monday, the Rajya Sabha Chairman referred to the first part of the Budget session that witnessed eight full consecutive sittings without disturbances and forced adjournments, and stressed on the need to sustain that spirit.

As the Budget session resumed after a 30-day recess, Naidu gave an account of the work done by the eight stanfing committees of Rajya Sabha.

He informed the House that these eight committees held 23 meetings for 73 hours and 33 minutes at an average duration of 3 hours 30 minutes per meeting.

"This marked an increase of one hour 17 minutes per meeting over last year, constituting a rise of 56 per cent. The three committees on education, personnel and public grievances and commerce reported an average duration of meetings of over four hours during the recess period.

Speaking on the low attendance of members in the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee (DRSC)meetings, Naidu reiterated the need for nominating members with interest in specialised and technical matters on committees dealing with those issues. He further noted that the members should give priority to attending the meetings of the Parliamentary panels even during the time of elections.

Referring to the situation in Ukraine, Naidu said that evacuation of students from the war-hit country was a challenging task and complimented the Centre and state governments for putting in praiseworthy efforts in this regard.