RS adjourned sine die

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Friday adjourned sine die in the pre-noon session without taking up major business listed for the day, including the Appropriation Bill, even as a discussion on the draft National Education Policy remained unfinished.

As per today's business list, the Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Employee's Compensation (Amendment) Bill, 2016, were listed for consideration and passing but could not be taken up.

The Appropriation (No.3) Bill, 2016 and the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2016 were to be taken up for consideration and return to the Lok Sabha, as per today's agenda.

The House, however, took up a motion for reference of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to a Joint Committee and nominated ten members to the panel.

Chairman Hamid Ansari adjourned the House during the Zero Hour at around 11.50 am.

Naresh Agrawal (SP) had raised the issue of Appropriation Bill, saying it seems the government does not want a discussion on it. He said the government was setting a "new precedent" by not allowing debate on the Bill.

However, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Agrawal could have said so had the bill not been listed in the business. He said it was being listed for the last several days and "we had said, sit till late and discuss the bill".

The House was also scheduled to take up further discussion on the draft National Education Policy - 2016, with several opposition members making vociferous demands for it to be taken up and the minister replying to the debate.

Before adjourning the House, Ansari read out the valedictory remarks in which he detailed the work done in the House during the 240th Session which began on July 18.

The Upper House approved 14 legislations, including the much awaited GST Bill, passed a unanimous resolution on the prevailing situation in Kashmir and debated other major issues during the "highly productive" monsoon session.

"The Session commenced with high expectation. I am glad that the Session was highly productive. There were debates of national concern and discussion on many subjects," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present as the national song was rendered and the Chairman announced that "the House stands adjourned sine die".

The 240th Session of Rajya Sabha, which commenced on July 18, had 20 sittings during which it deliberated for more than 112 hours. While 59 elected, re-elected and nominated members joined the House, BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu resigned.

In his statement, Ansari said "the incidents of violence in Kashmir Valley engaged the undivided attention of the House. The debate took ten hours of the House on two days."

A unanimous resolution adopted after the debate appealed to all sections of the society in Jammu and Kashmir to work for the early restoration of normalcy and harmony, with the House resolving to restore confidence among the people in general and the youth in particular, he said.

The House also held an "animated debate" before passing the Constitution 122nd (Amendment) Bill, 2014 to enable introduction of a new indirect tax regime, Goods and Service Tax (GST), the Chairman said.

In all, 14 government bills pertaining to different ministries, including finance, labour and employment, agriculture and farmers welfare, health and family welfare, and HRD were passed.

Rajya Sabha also took up short duration discussions on issues regarding atrocities on dalits, price rise, status of implementation of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, role of Governors in the light of developments that took place in Uttrakhand and Arunachal Pradesh and Draft National Education Policy.

While 300 starred questions were raised, 333 supplementaries were also taken up. "It is very heartening to note that almost all parties got opportunities to raise supplementaries and participate in Question Hour," he said.

Members raised 123 urgent public issues during Zero Hour, of which 21 were instantly responded to by the ministers. Members also expressed their concern on matters of public interest through 91 special mentions.

They also got a chance to seek clarifications on four calling attentions on important matters as also on statements made by ministers regarding missing IAF AN-32 plane and Home Minister's visit to Pakistant to attend SAARC meeting.

Fourteen private member bills were introduced. Further consideration of one private member's bill 'The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2015' was deferred.