30-35% of Parliament's time wasted due to disruption: Study

Parliament sat for a total of 73 days last year in three sessions but 258 of the 803 hours earmarked for business were lost due to disruptions over several issues, including price rise and corruption.

According to a study by PRS Legislative Research, Lok Sabha is scheduled to sit for six hours a day and Rajya Sabha for five hours. It meant that the Lower House had 438 hours and the upper house 365 hours to transact business.

"Out of the available time, approximately 30% time was lost to disruptions in Lok Sabha and 35% in Rajya Sabha," the study said.    However, on a positive note, it said Parliament fared better in 2011 compared to 2010 as one session was completely washed out then.

"Productive time in 2011 in Lok Sabha was 70% while in 2010, it was 57%," it said, adding out of 54 bills listed for consideration and passing, 28 were passed.

Interestingly, in Lok Sabha, 18% of the bills were passed in less than five minutes like Chartered Accountants (Amendment) Bill, 2010 and National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Bill, 2011.

Presently, 97 bills are pending before Parliament for passage, which includes the contentious Lokpal Bill, Judicial Accountability Bill, Land Acquisition Bill, Direct Tax Code Bill and the UID Bill, among others.

The study said that time allotted to Question Hour was often lost owing to disruptions in both the Houses.

Though Rajya Sabha tried to experiment with shifting the Question Hour to 2pm, the change did not bring any improvement in the functioning of Question Hour. As a result it was moved back to 11am.