Rajya Sabha rejects private member’s bill on improving Parliament productivity

The Rajya Sabha on Friday rejected by voice vote a bill seeking setting up of a system to improve productivity of Parliament.

The Parliament (Enhancement of Productivity) Bill, 2017 was introduced by Naresh Gujaral (SAD) and the House discussed it for two and half hours. Since, Gujaral was not present, Deputy Chairman Harivansh put the bill to vote, which was defeated by voice vote.

In his reply, Railways and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said, “All leaders and members should sit together and decide. But we cannot pass a private member bill on this.”

The bill seeks for establishment of an effective system to prevent and address the decline in productivity of Parliament due to disruptions of sittings, by means of an appropriate legal framework to fix the minimum number of days in a year for which Parliament shall be in sessions, introduction of special session in addition to the existing three sessions, compensation for the hours unutilised due to disruptions, and to provide obligations of the presiding officers of both houses and the members of Parliament.

V. Vijaysai Reddy move another private member’s bill - The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2018 (insertion of new articles 330A and 332A) - which seeks reservation for backward classes in Parliament.

Mr. Reddy stressed that less than 20% of the members are from other backward classes. He said that in 2001, the percentage of OBC members in Parliament was 18 while it was just 11% in 1984. He also demanded that there should be a special ministry to look into the welfare of OBCs.

Earlier, as many as 26 private member bills were introduced by members which would be taken up for discussion later. An interesting bill among the lot is one seeking modification in the national anthem -- The National Anthem (Modification) Bill, 2018.

The other bills include The Employment Bill, 2018, The Protection of Farmers Families Bill, 2018, The Prevention of Contamination of Groundwater Bill, 2018 and The Compulsory Yoga and Sports Education in Schools Bill, 2018.