New Delhi [India], August 29 (ANI): The Rouse Avenue Court on Monday convicted former Rajya Sabha MP Ajay Kumar Sahni (presently RJD MLA, Bihar) and two others for the offence of criminal conspiracy and commission of the substantive offences reserved in Leave Travel Concession (LTC) scam case which was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

New Delhi [India], June 27 (ANI): A total of 56 candidates, including NDA's Droupadi Murmu and opposition's Yashwant Sinha, have filed their nominations for the upcoming presidential election till Monday evening, a data available with Rajya Sabha Secretariat confirmed.

New Delhi [India], March 13 (ANI): Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday asserted that although all languages are supreme but Hindi should be given importance as it is spoken by a large number of people.

New Delhi [India], February 3 (ANI): The CPI(M) floor leader in Rajya Sabha, Elamaram Kareem, on Thursday, wrote to the Chairman against disallowing the proposed amendments to the Motion of Thanks to President's Address, and termed the act "undemocratic and unethical" and said that the action could create an impression that the House Secretariat deliberately excluded the Amendments dealing with incidents "that could expose the Union government".

New Delhi [India], January 30 (ANI): Shortly after isolation and recovery from COVID, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday held a meeting with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in the presence of senior officials of Lok Sabha as well as Rajya Sabha Secretariat on the preparations for the Budget session of Parliament which gets underway from Monday.

New Delhi [India], January 28 (ANI): The 'Mediation Bill, 2021' has been referred to the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice for examination and report, said the Rajya Sabha Secretariat on Friday.

New Delhi [India], January 24 (ANI): The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked its various divisions to furnish details regarding "physical and financial targets" fixed for Centrally sponsored schemes or Central sector for consideration of the Demands for Grants (2022-2023), and it is directed to submit the details in next three days.

New Delhi Jan 18 PTI The attendance of members in parliamentary committees of Rajya Sabha saw an increase during the Covid pandemic despite the withdrawal of special allowance for MPs according to a survey by the RS SecretariatOfficials said contrary to the perception in some quarters the withdrawal of the special allowance to the members of Parliament for attending the meetings of the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committees DRSCs has had no impact on their attendance in these meetingsAn analysis undertaken by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat at the behest of Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has found that the attendance has increased during 2019-20 despite the outbreak of COVID-19A special allowance was granted to MPs earlier in 2016-17 when they were entitled to 25 per cent airfare for attending the committee meetings This allowance was discontinued from April 1 2018During 2016-17 mid September to mid September when the allowance was available for the full year the average attendance in 119 meetings of eight standing committees was 4764 per cent and it increased to 4879 per cent for 119 meetings during 2019-20 when such allowance was not allowedDuring 2017-18 the special allowance was available for 6 months officials said adding that during 2018-19 all the 8 committees of Rajya Sabha reported low attendance perhaps due to the Lok Sabha elections in the first half of 2019Accordingly 2016-17 was taken as the reference year for assessing the impact of meeting allowance to MPs on attendance during 2019-20 and 2020-21 they saidThe parliamentary panels are reconstituted mid September with a tenure of one yearThe average attendance increased from 4764 per cent during the reference year of 2016-17 to 4879 per cent during 2019-20 despite the onset of Covid in March 2020 and its peaking in September that yearThe attendance however fell marginally to 4459 per cent for 136 meetings during 2020-21 as the country witnessed outbreak of more severe second wave of Covid during 2021 The internal analysis further revealed that four committees - Transport Tourism Culture Health Family Welfare Education Women Child Development Youth Affairs Sports and Commerce have improved attendance during 2019-20 over that of 2016-17 while three committees - Home Affairs Science Technology and Law Justice have maintained attendance of 2016-17Only the committee on industry showed decline in attendance the sources saidDuring the two-year period of 2019-20 and 2020-21 when a total of 255 meetings were held by the 8 committees of Rajya Sabha despite the pandemic the officials said the average attendance has been 4675 per cent only marginally lower than that of 2016-17For this two year period four committees Education Commerce Science Technology and Law Justice have improved attendance over that of the reference year of 2016-17 they saidGiven the importance of DRSCs introduced in 1993 Naidu has been regularly reviewing the functioning of the 8 committees of Rajya Sabha and has been referring to the same in his opening and closing remarks for each session of the HouseHe had urged the chairmen of the 8 committees to ensure attendance of 50 per cent and average duration of 2 hours 30 minutes each meetingThe analysis also revealed that the average duration of meetings of 8 DRSCs of Rajya Sabha has increased from 1 hour 48 minutes during 2016-17 to 2 hours 06 minutes for 2019-21The Committee on Home Affairs reported the highest increase of 49 minutes per meeting followed by Commerce-48 minutes Education-42 minutes Transport-35 minutes and Industry-13 minutes The Committees on Science Technology and Health Family Welfare maintained status quoOn the last day of the winter session on August 23 last year Naidu had directed the Rajya Sabha Secretariat to empirically examine the impact of withdrawal of special allowance to MPs on attendance in the meetings of 8 committees of Rajya SabhaEach committee with 31 MPs 11 from Rajya Sabha and 20 from Lok Sabha is known as mini-Parliament Twenty four such committees including 16 of Lok Sabha work round the year and take up detailed scrutiny of annual Demands for Grants of various ministries and departments besides examining and reporting on bills referred to them from time to timeThey also take up suo moto examination of implementation of various policies and programmes of the government Deliberations in these committees are generally above political divide PTI SKC ZMN

New Delhi [India], January 11 (ANI): Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla on Tuesday inspected the Parliament House Complex (PHC) to take stock of the health safety related measures and other preparations in light of the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in the country.

New Delhi Dec 27 PTI President Ram Nath Kovind has prorogued both the Houses of Parliament after the conclusion of the Winter SessionThe Seventh Session of the 17th Lok Sabha was prorogued by the President on December 24 the Lok Sabha secretariat bulletin said A Rajya Sabha Secretariat bulletin said the 255th session of the Council of States has been prorogued by the President on December 24 The Winter Session of Parliament had begun on November 29 and both the Houses were adjourned sine die on December 22 PTI SKU RCJ