Monsoon Session was ‘productive’

With the passage of the long-pending GST Bill and the longest-ever discussion in Parliament on Kashmir, the Monsoon Session was described as “highly productive” by the Rajya Sabha chairperson Hamid Ansari, who adjourned the Upper House sine die after 20 sittings. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan noted that while the Lower House lost over six 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.

The session also witnessed an Aam Admi Party 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 Ms Mahajan. “An inquiry committee has been constituted to go into the various issues of uploading of footage of Parliament complex on social media by Bhagwant Mann. The Committee is seized of the matter,” Ms Mahajan said.

Hailing the session as “highly productive”, Rajya Sabha chairperson Hamid Ansari said the House debated issues of “national concern”, including the situations arising out of inflation, Kashmir violence and attacks on dalits. Mr Ansari said the Rajya Sabha held an “animated debate” while considering and passing the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014, to pave the way for the rollout of the Goods and Service Tax. “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,” Mr Ansari said.

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 (Prohi-bition) bill, Taxation laws (Amendment) bill, Factories (Amendment) Bill, Employee’s Compensation (Amendment) Bill and the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill.

The proceedings of the 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 in 2015 was a stormy affair which had witnessed several disruptions over the Lalit Modi controversy and the Vyapam scam.

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