RS panels improve performance, Naidu writes to chiefs to enhance attendance

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has urged chairpersons and members of eight parliamentary standing committees to work towards ensuring attendance at over 50 per cent as he highlighted that the panels have shown improvement in working hours.

The functioning of the eight Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committees of Rajya Sabha has improved substantially with 15 per cent increase in attendance and more than 16 per cent improvement in the average duration of meetings since their reconstitution in September, 2019 over that of the previous two years.

Appreciating the improved performance, Chairman Naidu urged the chairmen and members of the panels to work towards ensuring over 50 per cent attendance, besides targeting a minimum duration of two-and-half hours in each meeting given the efforts and costs involved in holding the meetings.

The Committee on Education, Women, Child, Youth and Sports reported the highest average attendance of 65.30 pc, followed by the Committee on Health and Family Welfare (52.46 pc) and the Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture (50.42 pc), an internal report said.

Since September 2017, the eight committees of Rajya Sabha have held a total of 355 meetings -- 134 in 2017-18, 49 in 2018-19 and 172 since September 2019 -- according to an analysis conducted by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat.

These committees are reconstituted in September every year by the Chairman of Rajya Sabha. Each Committee has 10 members from Rajya Sabha and 21 from Lok Sabha. Attendance of 11 of the 31 members of each committee constitutes the quorum.

The eight committees of Rajya Sabha clocked average attendance of close to 50 per cent (49.34 pc) in 172 meetings held since September 2019, marking 15 per cent increase over the average attendance of 42.90 per cent for the previous two years (2017-19), sources said.