The Budget session of Parliament concluded today with passage of record official business in recent years but the government failed to ensure passage of the controversial Land Acquisition Bill as also key reform measure of GST amid stiff resistance from opposition.
This Budget Session has proved to be most productive during the last decade with the Lok Sabha working 117 per cent of the scheduled workimg hours and the Rajya Sabha reported a productivity of 101 per cent, the government said.
"In terms of number of Bills passed by both the Houses during the Budget sessions, the highest number of 24 Bills were passed by both the Houses during this Budget session, the best in the last five years," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu said.
Despite the government proroguing Rajya Sabha to faciliate repromulagation of the Land Ordinance, it was forced to refer the contentious bill to a Joint Committee of Parliament in the face of stiff resistance by opposition led by Rahul Gandhi.
This was the second time, the government had attempted to bring the bill. In the first phase of the Budget session that ended on March 20, the land bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, but got stuck in the Rajya Sabha where the BJP and its allies did not have numbers.
Government had put a lot of hopes on the early passage of the Constitution Amendment Bill for roll-out of GST to send out the message that it was going fast on the reform route, but the session saw it had to bow to the opposition wishes of sending it to the standing committee.
The second phase of the budget session of Lok Sabha started on April 20 in an atmosphere surcharged over the Land Bill as several opposition parties had made a common cause to resist it.
A highlight of the session was the passage of a number of bill including the Constitution (100th Amendment) Bill relating to operationalisation of Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh, the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill and the important Black Money Bill.
In addition, major legislations for ensuring transparency in allocation of natural resources like coal and other mineral minerals and enhancing ease of doing business were also passed during this session.
