New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Monday adjourned the house sine die, bringing its budget session to a close four days ahead of schedule.

"The fourth budget session of the 14th Lok Sabha comes to a close today," Chatterjee announced in the house at 2.15 pm. The session was to end on Friday, according to the schedule.

The union budget and the railways budget for 2008-09 were passed in this session. The highlight of the union budget was the announcement of a loan waiver worth Rs.600 billion for farmers.

Chatterjee said 20 bills were tabled in the house in this session. Five of them were measures replacing ordinances and the most important among them were the Delimitation Bill and the Representation of People Act (Amendment) Bill.

While the Delimitation Bill seeks to redraw the boundaries of the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies based on the changes in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes populations in various constituencies, the Representation of People Act has been amended in accordance with the Delimitation Bill.

"In all, 62 reports were tabled and 280 matters were raised in the house," Chatterjee said.

This budget session, which had a 25-day recess, witnessed frequent disruptions by MPs from the opposition benches. "In this session, 28 hours and 30 minutes were lost due to interruptions and walkouts," the speaker informed the house.

During the session, the opposition raised the issue of price rise several times.

However, the controversial India-US civilian nuclear deal and the proposed Women's Reservation Bill were two issues which were conspicuous by their absence - both the matters did not come up for discussion in the lower house.

 

Source : IANS