Lok Sabha loses four hours, Rs 1 crore on day one

The loss of four hours work in the Lok Sabha due to the bedlam over the opposition's boycott of home minister P Chidambaram on the first day of Parliament's winter session is estimated to have caused a Rs 1 crore loss to the nation.

The disruption came despite an appeal from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the session's smooth running to enable important legislative business.

Officials of PRS Legislative Research, a policy study group, noted that the Lok Sabha, which nornally meets for five hours day, was in session for just about half-an-hour as it had to be adjourned due to the pandemonium.

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned to mourn the death of two sitting members, Ram Dayal Munda and Silvious Condapen.

As the Lok Sabha was adjourned twice, once during the Question Hour and later for the day after noon, the house lost about four hours of work.

A rough estimate, based on the budgetary allocation for parliament's functioning, puts the cost of an hour's work of parliament at Rs25 lakh. Considering this, the exchequer lost about Rs 1 crore.

The opposition in the Lok Sabha created a din during question hour when Chidambaram tried to answer a query from Rashtriya Janata Dal member Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.

Manmohan Singh, ahead of the Parliament's sitting, expressed the hope that all political parties "realise that we have important legislations to discuss in the winter session" and that the session runs smoothly.