Parliament disruption costs exchequer Rs2 crore a day

With frequent disruptions and forced adjournments of Parliament by the opposition becoming the order of the day, the public exchequer is likely to lose crores of rupees in the on-going session as each hour of functioning of the House costs Rs25 lakh.

As the winter session of Parliament commenced on Tuesday, the Lok Sabha met for only about half an hour. While the House had to be adjourned during the Question Hour as the opposition raised a din over issues like price rise, black money and Telangana, it was adjourned for the day when it met again as no order could be restored.

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned after condoling the death of two sitting members.

The adjournments and disruptions are likely to take place in the coming days of the 21-day Parliament session.

According to official estimates, running the House costs Rs25 lakh per hour. A normal day in Parliament may last upto eight hours, beginning with the Question Hour at 11 am.

The House sitting may continue upto 8 pm with a one hour lunch break.

This would mean a loss of Rs2 crore on a day when no business is transacted. Add the number of days and hours wasted and the loss figures at the end of each session is huge.

The opposition has used disruptions, adjournments and walk-outs as a weapon to corner the government. However, this leads to fewer debates and discussions on vital issues.

The whole of the winter session of Parliament in 2010 had been washed out when an unrelenting opposition refused to give up its demand for formation of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G spectrum scam.