New Delhi: A blocked Parliament is nothing new. When the Congress was in Opposition it too blocked entire sessions just as the BJP did when it was in Opposition.
So every time Parliament meets, it is either adjourned prematurely or boycotted.
Every adjournment is massively expensive and the taxpayers pay for it.
Believe it or not, the cost of running a Parliament is approximately Rs 67 lakh a day, while that of the whole session easily runs into crores.
The Monsoon Session of Parliament began on July 24 and on Day One itself, the session was lost to the Opposition walking out on the issues of terrorism and price rise - something that has been the trend for a while now.
- According to 'Citizens Report on Governance and Development - 2006' done by national Social Watch Cooalition, only 5.28 per cent of the total working hours were lost in pandemonium in the 11th Lok Sabha (1996-98).
- The figure increased to 10.66 per cent in the 12th Lok Sabha (1998-99).
- In the 13th Lok Sabha (1999-2004) it further went up to 22.4 per cent.
Likewise the cost of running the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha has also increased manifold
- According to the report, In 1951, while the operating cost was only Rs 100 per minute, in 2003-04, it increased to over Rs 18,713 per minute.
- In 2005-06, it is expected to cross Rs 20,000 per minute.
Based on 2003-04 figures, for one hour's disruption, the taxpayers fork out Rs 11,22,829
With six hours of business on an average everyday, the daily cost of running the parl ia a whopping Rs 67 lakh.
This year, the Monsoon Session is expected to be approximately 150 hours long and out of this, 32 hours have already been lost to walk outs and adjournments, further adding to the loss.
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