With disruptions and logjams becoming a norm in Parliament and Assemblies across the country, the Narendra Modi government has taken an initiative to address the issue.Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu organised a meeting of chief whips and floor leaders of all parties in Parliament and state legislatures in Goa to come to a consensus on the matter.What emerged from it was a unanimous decision to penalise lawmakers for wasting the time of the House, said sources.Parliamentarians and legislators will have to forfeit their daily allowance in case disruptions force the House to adjourn without transacting any business, the panel concluded. And Parliament will have to sit for 100 days a year, assemblies should have 40-70 sittings - a minimum 40 in the case of assemblies with 40 or less MLAs and 70 for those with more than 40 members.Conventionally, Parliament used to have a minimum 100 working days. But during the tenure of UPA 2 at the Centre, one-fourth of working days were wasted due to agitations over various issues - the worst example being the winter session in 2010. Opposition protesting against the UPA government's refusal to set up a Joint Parliamentary Panel to probe the 2G spectrum scam did not let the House function for a single day. Again, during the UPA's tenure, MPs from the Seemandhra region of Andhra Pradesh, including those from the Congress party protesting against the creation of a separate state of Telangana, disrupted the House, tore papers and manhandled constitutional appointees.All this had added up to a huge backlog in legislation.The parties also agreed that a code of conduct was needed for legislators - along with the means to implement it.

It has been decided to circulate the draft code to all chief ministers and presiding officers for a final decision.This is the first of its kind of initiatives by the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry in which chief whips of all parties in Parliament and assemblies had gathered under one roof to work out a strategy against disruptions in Parliament and assemblies. Chief whips are assigned by parties to administer the "whipping system" that ensures that members of the party attend and vote as the party leadership desires.