NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha recorded 96 per cent productivity during the first phase of the Budget session that concluded on February 11.

During the nine sittings of the Rajya Sabha, the House functioned for a total of 38 hours and 30 minutes as against the scheduled available time of 41 hours and 10 minutes. While the House lost 5 hours and 32 minutes on February 3 due to disruptions and forced adjournments , the members sat for 3 hours and 56 minutes beyond the scheduled time resulting in a net loss of one hour and 36 minutes of the scheduled time of the House.

Of the 9 sittings of the Rajya Sabha, 6 were effective.

During the sittings, 155 members, accounting for 69% of the effective strength of the House, spoke in the House under various instruments like Zero Hour , Special Mentions, discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President 's Address, debate on the Budget for 2020-21 and on the Private Members' Bills.

A total of 323 interventions were made during the 6 functional days which comes to 54 per day. Thirteen members of the Rajya Sabha, who are ministers and the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, do not either raise questions or participate in the proceedings of the House which makes the effective strength of the Upper House as 226.

Of the 323 interventions, Zero Hour and Special Mentions made by 155 members, 83 got two or more opportunities to participate in the proceedings of the House.

V Vijaysai Reddy of the YSRCP had the best participation with 9 opportunities, including a Zero Hour mention, Special Mention, 5 supplementaries, one Starred Question, 4 Supplimentaries to Starred Questions besides participation in the debates on Motion of Thanks to the President and Budget.

PL Punia, Husain Dalwai, Prof M K Jha, Amar Patnaik, Ravi Prakash Verma, Dr Ashok Bajpai, Amar Shankar Sable got 5 opportunities each.

A total of 75 Zero Hour submissions were made during 4 days at the rate of about 19 per day and 38 Special Mentions on 6 days at the rate of over 6 per day.

Thirty-four Starred Questions were taken up on 5 days at the rate of 7 questions per day. 45 members spoke on the Motion of Thanks to the President while 55 participated in the discussion on General Budget.

