Rajya Sabha adjourned sine die

New Delhi, Aug 13:

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned sine die on Thursday after a brief sitting.

Chairman M. Hamid Ansari adjourned the house sine die when it met at noon after the first adjournment.

According to Rajya Sabha secretariat, in the 17 sittings of the session, the upper house sat only for a little more than nine hours, while more than 82 hours were lost due to adjournments.

This is in stark contrast to the budget session, which saw Rajya Sabha have a productivity of 101 percent.

There was hardly any legislative business transacted during the session, with the bill on GST being the only bill that was moved. Two appropriation bills were also returned.

On Thursday, Rajya Sabha bid farewell to three of its members, who are going to retire.

Congress member from Puducherry, P. Kannan, will retire on October 6, while the terms of two nominated members, Ashok. S. Ganguli and H.K. Dua, will end on November 17.

Ansari said: “They significantly contributed to its deliberations and enhanced its dignity. I wish them good health, happiness and success in their future endeavours.”

Commenting on the functioning of the house, Dua said: “Tolerance has been missing in the house. I urge the treasury and opposition benches to evolve a consensus on running parliament smoothly.”

The entire session was washed out due to protests by the opposition, led by Congress, over the Lalit Modi controversy and Vyapam recruitment scam.  (IANS)