Rajya Sabha officials emotionally recall their days with Mr Naidu
Andalib Akhter / New Delhi
The Outgoing Vice President and Chairman Rajya Sabha, M. Venkaiah Naidu today met the officials of Rajya Sabha Secretariat at Parliament House and thanked them for all the love and support over the last five years. Appreciating their dedication and sense of duty, Mr Naidu wished them all the very best for their future. “You would always remain close to my heart,” he told Rajya Sabha employees.
The scene turned quite emotional when the senior officials of Rajya Sabha recalled their days with Naidu and thanked him for his guidance and leadership over the years. They wished the outgoing Chairman a happy and healthy life.
Prior to this, the Vice President also planted a sapling of Sita Ashoka at the Parliament House lawns and emphasized the need to protect and preserve our natural environment. Highlighting that in Indian tradition, a tree is considered equal to many sons, he called for promoting tree plantation across the country.
Meanwhile during the 13 sessions presided over by Naidu from the 244th session, Rajya Sabha has clocked productivity of 82.34% for two thirds of the total sittings (173 of 261 sittings) enabling the reversal of declining productivity.
According to a publication titled ‘Rajya Sabha – 2017-22: An Overview’ brought out by the Secretariat several initiatives of first of their kind taken during the tenure of Naidu including; the review of functioning of the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committees since their introduction in 1993 and other committees of the House; contextual analysis of the functioning of the House since 1978; initiation of review of the Rules of the House; examination of the attendance of members, their participation in the proceedings of the House; analysis of time share of different items of business of the House; quantification of the duration and attendance in each meeting of the committees; use of Indian languages in the proceedings of the House; extent of public outreach on various aspects of the functioning of Rajya Sabha through media; commissioning the first ever comprehensive study on ‘System Improvement’ in the Secretariat etc.
During the tenure of Chairman Naidu, Rajya Sabha has functioned for over 951 hours till the last session. The House has lost 26 sittings due to different waves of COVID-19 pandemic.
During the last five years, the eight Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committees of Rajya Sabha have held 558 meetings till June this year and submitted 369 reports. Due to regular review and monitoring of their functioning by Shri Naidu, the average duration of the meetings have substantially improved with an average attendance of over 45% per meeting.