A review report by Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu has found that eight department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees have improved their performance from September 2020 to September 2021 in terms of meetings and attendance of its members compared to 2017-18.
The review report of the performance of these eight Committees revealed that while only two Committees on Transport, Tourism & Culture and Health Family Welfare reported an average duration of over two hours per meeting in 2017-18, six Committees i.e. Transport, Health, Education, Home Affairs, Science & Technology, and Commerce met for over two hours per meeting during 2020-21.
While no Committee has reported attendance of 50 per cent in 2017-18, three Committees on Transport, Education and Law & Justice have reported attendance of more than 50 per cent during 2020-21 with six of the eight Committees improving average attendance in the meetings during this period, said the report.
For the 134 meetings held by the eight Committees during 2017-18, the average duration of each meeting had been 1 hour 51 minutes while the average attendance was 44.87 per cent. The same for the 126 meetings held during 2020-21 has been 2 hours 14 minutes and 47.53 per cent respectively. This marks an increase of 20 performance in the duration of meetings and a 6 per cent rise in attendance despite the pandemic since March 2020, said the report.
In his last letter to the Chairmen of all the eight Committees, Vice President Naidu has urged them to ensure an average attendance of 50 per cent and an average duration of 2 hours 30 minutes in each of the meetings given the costs involved. The performance reported in this regard during 2020-21 is close to the benchmarks suggested by the Rajya Sabha Chairman.
Each Committee has 31 members with 10 from Rajya Sabha and 21 from Lok Sabha. Attendance of 11 members (35 per cent) makes the quorum for each meeting. The number of meetings held without quorum has also substantially declined in 2020-21. These Committees are reconstituted every year in September.
Meanwhile, the report also said that the annual productivity at 59 per cent during 2021 is the second-lowest for Rajya Sabha since 2018.
( With inputs from ANI )
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