LS Speaker Says Parliament Should Have at Least 100 Sittings Every Year

Expressing concerns over repeated disruptions in the House, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has said that Parliament should sit for a minimum of 100 days in a year.

“I really want the Parliament to have 100 sitting days a year. We should also make full use of the Parliament time. The most important thing is that the question hour should be sacrosanct and should never be suspended,” said, Meira Kumar, India’s first woman Speaker.

She was having an interaction with media persons in New Delhi. “During the Parliament session, I was very concerned about the question hour as it is the time when the Government is accountable to the Parliament and there is so much of information that becomes public,” she said.

Stressing that more queries should be answered during the question hour, she said, “As of now, on an average 3.34 questions of 10 listed gets answered during the question hour. I would like it to go up to six or seven per day.”

It should be noted that her statement has come in the backdrop of the reducing workings hours of the parliament that have draw criticism all over.

The year 2008 has the record of the work for the lowest number of days, just 46. Since 1950, when it had crossed 140 sittings, there has been a steady drop. The average number of Lok Sabha sittings has been 97 per year.

“There has been a feeling that Parliamentarians are not serious about their job, but I have seen them sitting till late in the night in the house. During the budget session, the Parliament worked seven hours more from the stipulated 164 hours.

“Around 23.34 hours were wasted but we worked extra 30 hours to compensate for it. I hope the next session we should be improving,” she said.