New Delhi: The exchequer lost more than Rs 20 crores on account of disruptions in Parliament during 2007. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha lost over 130 hours of time due to repeated uproar and pandemonium in the year gone by. However, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee hopes that it will be a different story in 2008.

"I hope that Parliament will be able to identify and deliberate on the real national issues concerning the common people of the country," he told reporters when asked about the outlook for the new year.

He prefaced his remarks by saying that he was an optimist and hoped that democracy would further consolidate in spite of "some hiccups, which generally are part of any evolving democracy".

The disruptions cost a fortune in view of the fact that the per minute expenditure of running the Lok Sabha alone was put at Rs 22,089 during 2006-07 which is likely to go up to Rs 24,632 this year. This way the Lok Sabha alone lost a whopping Rs 17,22,94,200.

The Speaker's remarks came against the backdrop of 2007 turning out to be yet another year of sound and fury in Parliament which saw the nuclear deal and Nandigram providing enough cannon and fodder to the lawmakers.

The MPs also targeted Indian envoy in Washington for his "headless chicken" remarks.

Source : PTI