New Delhi: Passage of the long-pending GST bill and a unanimous resolution on Kashmir were the highlights of the “highly productive” Monsoon session of Parliament which was adjourned sine die today after 20 sittings.

The session also witnessed an Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Bhagwant Mann being barred from attending the Lok Sabha after he filmed and uploaded a video of Parliament complex on social media, an episode which is being probed into by a Parliamentary Committee set up by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

Hailing the session as “highly productive”, Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari said the House debated issues of “national concern”, including the situations arising out of inflation, Kashmir violence and attacks on Dalits.

Echoing similar feelings, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan noted that while the House lost over 6 hours and 33 minutes of time due to interruptions followed by forced adjournments, it sat late for over 18 hours to discuss various important issues.

While 13 legislations were passed by the Lower House, the Upper House approved 14 laws.

Besides the GST Constituional Amendment, the Bills which were passed include Benami Transactions (Prohibition) bill, Taxation laws (Amendment) bill, Factories (Amendment) bill, Employee’s Compensation (Amendment) Bill and the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) bill.

The proceedings of monsoon session of both Houses of Parliament commenced on July 18. While the Rajya Sabha deliberated for more than 112 hours during the 20 sittings, the Lok Sabha sat for 121 hours. As many as 59 elected, re-elected and nominated members joined the Rajya Sabha.

Incidentally, the Monsoon session of Parliament last year was a stormy affair which had witnessed several disruptions over the Lalit Modi controversy and the Vyapam scam.

The Lok Sabha Speaker said an inquiry committee has been constituted to go into various issues of uploading of footage of Parliament complex on social media by Bhagwant Mann. The Committee is seized of the matter, she added.

The Lower House also took up 4 discussions including on violence in Kashmir, price rise, sustainable development goals and atrocities against dalits.

Ansari said the Rajya Sabha held an “animated debate” while considering and passing the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014, to pave the way for rollout of a new indirect tax regime, Goods and Service Tax (GST).

“The incidents of violence in Kashmir Valley engaged the undivided attention of the House. The debates took ten hours of the House in two separate days,” Ansari said.

Both the Houses passed a unanimous resolution on prevailing situation in Kashmir Valley.

It earnestly appealed to all sections of the society in Jammu and Kashmir, to work for the early restoration of normalcy and harmony and unanimously resolved to restore the confidence among the people in general and youth in particular. It also resolved there can be no compromise with the country’s unity, integrity and national security.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in both the Houses, which were adjourned sine die one after another.

After Rajya Sabha was adjourned sine die, Modi, Congress leader Manmohan Singh, and some other leaders went to the Chairman’s chamber to thank him for conducting House proceedings.

Rajya Sabha adjourns sine die

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha today adjourned sine die in the pre-noon session without taking up major business listed for the day, including the Appropriation Bill, even as a discussion on the draft National Education Policy remained unfinished.

As per today’s business list, the Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Employee’s Compensation (Amendment) Bill, 2016, were listed for consideration and passing but could not be taken up.

The Appropriation (No.3) Bill, 2016 and the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2016 were to be taken up for consideration and return to the Lok Sabha, as per today’s agenda.

The House, however, took up a motion for reference of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to a Joint Committee and nominated ten members to the panel.

Chairman Hamid Ansari adjourned the House during the Zero Hour at around 11.50 AM.

Naresh Agrawal (SP) had raised the issue of Appropriation Bill, saying it seems the government does not want a discussion on it. He said the government was setting a “new precedent” by not allowing debate on the Bill.

However, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Agrawal could have said so had the bill not been listed in the business. He said it was being listed for the last several days and “we had said, sit till late and discuss the bill”.

The House was also scheduled to take up further discussion on the draft National Education Policy – 2016, with several opposition members making vociferous demands for it to be taken up and the minister replying to the debate.

Before adjourning the House, Ansari read out the valedictory remarks in which he detailed the work done in the House during the 240th Session which began on July 18.

The Upper House approved 14 legislations, including the much awaited GST Bill, passed a unanimous resolution on the prevailing situation in Kashmir and debated other major issues during the “highly productive” monsoon session.

“The Session commenced with high expectation. I am glad that the Session was highly productive. There were debates of national concern and discussion on many subjects,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present as the national song was rendered and the Chairman announced that “the House stands adjourned sine die”.

The 240th Session of Rajya Sabha, which commenced on July 18, had 20 sittings during which it deliberated for more than 112 hours. While 59 elected, re-elected and nominated members joined the House, BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu resigned.

In his statement, Ansari said “the incidents of violence in Kashmir Valley engaged the undivided attention of the House. The debate took ten hours of the House on two days.”

A unanimous resolution adopted after the debate appealed to all sections of the society in Jammu and Kashmir to work for the early restoration of normalcy and harmony, with the House resolving to restore confidence among the people in general and the youth in particular, he said.

The House also held an “animated debate” before passing the Constitution 122nd (Amendment) Bill, 2014 to enable introduction of a new indirect tax regime, Goods and Service Tax (GST), the Chairman said.

In all, 14 government bills pertaining to different ministries, including finance, labour and employment, agriculture and farmers welfare, health and family welfare, and HRD were passed.

Rajya Sabha also took up short duration discussions on issues regarding atrocities on dalits, price rise, status of implementation of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, role of Governors in the light of developments that took place in Uttrakhand and Arunachal Pradesh and Draft National Education Policy.

While 300 starred questions were raised, 333 supplementaries were also taken up. “It is very heartening to note that almost all parties got opportunities to raise supplementaries and participate in Question Hour,” he said.

Members raised 123 urgent public issues during Zero Hour, of which 21 were instantly responded to by the ministers.

Members also expressed their concern on matters of public interest through 91 special mentions.

They also got chance to seek clarifications on four calling attentions on important matters as also on statements made by ministers regarding missing IAF AN-32 plane and Home Minister’s visit to Pakistant to attend SAARC meeting.

Fourteen private member bills were introduced. Further consideration of one private member’s bill ‘The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2015’ was deferred.

Monsoon Session: Lok Sabha”s productivity higher than RS

New Delhi: The productivity of the Lok Sabha was higher than the Rajya Sabha in the Monsoon session which ended today but its performance was less than what it had achieved in the Budget session.

Terming the performance of the two Houses as “good”, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said while the productivity of the Lok Sabh was recorded at 110.84 per cent, that of the Rajya Sabha was 99.54 per cent.

But according to data compiled by PRS Legislative, the productivity of the lower house in the Budget session was 121 per cent. The Rajya Sabha had recorded a productivity of 91 per cent, lower than what it achieved in the latest session.

The highlights of the Monsoon session were passage of the GST bill and unanimous resolutions in both Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Kashmir, he said.

“Each week, there was one discussion,” he said adding that Lok Sabha took up four discussions — on situation in Kashmir Valley, price rise, atrocities on Dalits and Sustainable Development Goals.

The Rajya Sabha, he said, took up six short duration discussions on situation in the Kashmir Valley, price rise, atrocities on Dalits, status of implementation of the AP Reorganisation Act, developments in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh leading to change in governments and the draft National Education Policy.

While 14 bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha, 15 were passed. The Rajya Sabha passed 14 bills, while one — The Maternity Benefit (amendment) Bill, 201 was introduced.

Parliament passed a total of 15 bills, including the one on GST.

While two bills which replaced as many ordinances on the common medical entrance exam were passed, the one which sought to replace an ordinance on amendments to the Enemy Property Act could not be cleared. The ordinance is set to lapse in the coming days.

PTI