Of the 222 Bills passed during the five years of the 17th Lok Sabha, the government rushed 45 on the same day, raising concerns on the lack of scrutiny of the laws being passed in Parliament.
A report on analysis of performance of MPs in 17th Lok Sabha released by NGO Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Tuesday also showed that another 20 Bills were cleared by both the Houses in one day. Likewise, 9 more legislations were went through parliament in 2 days. The data set leads to larger question how effectively Parliament is discharging its primary function of scruitinising legislations, a former senior officer of the Lok Sabha said on the condition of anonymity.
Performance appraisal
ADR and National Election Watch (NEW) together did the performance appraisal of the MPs.
However, there were 47 Bills passed by parliament in more than 30 days. And another set of 19 legislations went past both the Houses in between 11 to 30 days. Overall, 240 bills were introduced. Of which 222 were passed, 11 withdrawn and 6 remain pending and 1 was assented, the report highlighted.
The data, however, does not carry any explanation on how much time was spent on the debate on each Bill in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha as well as in parliamentary committees, if at all they were referred.
The previous 16th Lok Sabha reportedly scrutinised merely 26 per cent of the total number of bills that sailed through Parliament. The 15th Lok Sabha scrutinised 71 per cent of legislation cleared by the two Houses.
The 17th Lok Sabha has also earned the dubious distinction of recording the lowest sittings amongst all full-term the Houses have had previously, with the ADR stating that just 15 session took place between June 2019 to February, this year. This worked out to 55 days per year of the 17th Lok Sabha.
In these five years of the Modi government 2.0, the longest session of 37 sittings was the first one, from June 17 to August 6, the ADR pointed out. Likewise, the the 13th session was the shortest as it lasted for merely 4 days followed by the 15th session which went up to 9 days.
The report also stated that on an average 559 MPs have asked 165 questions and attended 189 out of 273 sittings in the entire term of parliament that has ended ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Highest average attendance
Eleven MPs from Chhattisgarh have the highest average attendance in the 17th Lok Sabha, participating in proceedings on an average 216 out of 273 sittings. On the other hand, the least average attendance of 217 sittings was recorded by 2 MPs from Arunachal Pradesh, the ADR report cited.
Among the States, 49 MPs from Maharashtra have asked the highest number of 315 questions in the 17th Lok Sabha. While 2 MPs from Manipur asked the least number of 25 questions.
Likewise, of the political parties, 3 MPs from TDP have the highest average attendance as on an average they sat in 229 out of 273 sittings. Interestingly, 2 MPs from AAP recorded the least attendance of 57 days.
BJP MP from Balurghat, West Bengal, Sukanta Majumdar has asked the highest number of 596 questions in the 17th Lok Sabha.