Here are 9 points that illustrate why the 2018 session was the least productive Budget session of Parliament since the year 2000

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will observe a day-long fast on Thursday. BJP party president Amit Shah will also join the fast from Hubli where he is to be campaigning for the upcoming Karnataka assembly elections, though both of them won't allow the fast to impact their daily schedules.

The reason for the fast is to protest against the Opposition not allowing Parliament to function smoothly in the recently concluded second half of the Budget session. Republic TV has attempted to ascertain just how much Parliament was impacted by the disruptive protests over a range of issues such as the PNB Bank scam, special category status for Andhra Pradesh and the Cauvery water-sharing issue.

Here are facts about the session from PRS India:

1. Productivity of the Lok Sabha was at 21% (vs 108% last year) while for the Rajya Sabha, it stood at 31% (vs 86% last year). This was the least productive Budget session for both houses since the year 2000. The average figure for the 16th Lok Sabha too is much higher, standing at 85% for the Lok Sabha and 68% for the Rajya Sabha. 

2. Non-legislative matters dominated the time spent during the session. In the Lok Sabha, 11.2 hours were spent on non-legislative matters, while 24.9 hours were spent in the Rajya Sabha. In comparison, a measly 20 minutes were reportedly spent on legislative matters in the Lok Sabha while for the Rajya Sabha, it was 2.5 hours. The figures for last year's session are far higher.

3. Both sessions functioned for a cumulative 86.8 hours with the Rajya Sabha functioning for 53.2 hours and the Lok Sabha for 33.6 hours. In comparison, in last year's Budget session, the houses functioned for a total of 314 hours. 

 

4. The daily time break up in the Lok Sabha makes for grim reading with almost no work being done in the much larger second half comprising 22 days.

In the corresponding 2017 graph, the story is completely different. 

5. Just two new bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha (versus 19 last year) and only two bills were passed with the total time spent in discussing the two bills standing at just 14 minutes. Seventeen bills were passed in the Lok Sabha in last year's Budget session. 

In comparison, before the 2018 Budget session, 32 bills were listed for consideration and passage while 8 new bills were listed to be introduced..

6. The disparity between the first part and far longer second part of the budget session is stunning. In the first part, the Lok Sabha functioned for 89% of the time while the Rajya Sabha functioned for 96%. In the second part, these figures reduced to just 4% and 9% respectively.

7. The Budget session also saw the 16th Lok Sabha's first no-confidence motion against the government. However, the motion wasn't admitted due to disruptions.

(The 16th Lok Sabha is yet to witness a no-confidence motion being taken up)

8. Even the Union Budget was discussed far less than the average since 2000. The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha discussed it for 15 and 11 hours respectively, while the average stands 53 hours and 23 hours for the Lower and Upper houses respectively.

9. It was also the poorest performance for question hour in the Lok Sabha since 2014.