New Delhi, March 31 (FN Agency) Bidding farewell to 72 retiring members, Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday voiced concerns that the Upper House lost 35 per cent of its functional time due to disruptions during the past four years. “It is disturbing to note that during the last over four years, this august House has lost over 35 per cent of it’s valuable functional time due to disruptions. This needs to be curbed before it is too late,” he said. He urged the legislators to be propelled by passion, performance and procedural integrity and asked them to desist from disrupting the law making bodies. Naidu called upon the elected representatives to ensure that the expectations and aspirations of the people are incorporated in the designing of the laws and policies. The House bade farewell to 72 members retiring between March and July this year. Naidu appreciated the 72 retiring MPs for their “commendable passion” for parliament saying “each one of you will be in our thoughts.”
He informed the House that the retiring members have a total parliamentary experience of 181 terms including 143 terms in Rajya Sabha and 38 in Lok Sabha earlier. “The retiring members are a vast pool of considerable legislative experience, domain knowledge, parliamentary skills and proven performance in the House. It is not often that such a pool of performers retire in one go,” he said. He further stated that 27 members accounting for 38 per cent of those retiring have the experience of serving two or more terms in Rajya Sabha. “Four ministers Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Ram Chandra Prasad are completing their tenures during this period,” he said. Chairmen of five of the eight Department Related Standing Committees of Rajya Sabha and floor leaders of four parties are also among those retiring, Naidu said. He referred to most of the retiring Members having kept themselves away from the tendency of disrupting the House. Referring to the performances of retiring members, Naidu informed that the 84 year old SR Balasubramoniyan is the lone member who has attended all the 234 sittings of the House during the 12 sessions from the 244th session in 2017 till the winter session last year demonstrating that passion and sincerity defy the age.
The 72 retiring members include leaders like AK Anthony, Ambika Soni, P Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh, Suresh Prabhu, Praful Patel, Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Prasanna Acharya, Sanjay Raut, Naresh Gujral, Satish Chandra Mishra, MC Mary Kom, Swapan Dasgupta, Dr. Narendra Jadhav. Among those retiring, 65 members represented 19 States while seven are nominated Members. Thursday was marked for farewell speeches for the retiring Rajya Sabha members. Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu will also give a farewell dinner to the 72 retiring Rajya Sabha MPs later in the evening. Mementos will also be presented to the retiring MPs and a cultural program will also be organised in which some members will showcase their talents.