<span style="color: #222222;">The Rajya Sabha was adjourned sine die today eight days ahead of the scheduled end of the Monsoon Session due to the spread of Corona virus. The House has passed 25 bills during 10 sittings without any break. Six new bills were introduced.<br />'' <br />'' The Session which started on 14th of September was to end on the first of October. This was for the first time the members were seated at different locations and the Chambers of both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.<br />'' <br />'' Referring to the difficult times due to Covid-19, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu observed that the 252nd Session of the House had registered over one hundred per cent utilization of the time.<br />'' <br />'' He said as against the scheduled available time of 38 hours and 30 minutes, the actual functional time of the House has been 38 hours and 41 minutes. He said 1,567 unstarred questions were replied in writing by the government. Members raised issues of urgent public importance during Zero Hour and 66 Special Mentions on which a total time of four hours 15 minutes was spent.<br />'' <br />'' Mr. Naidu said despite the pandemic, 198 members have participated in the discussions on various Bills. He lauded the members for the productivity of the session but lamented the unpleasant turn of events during the session. He appealed to all members to ensure that such unseemly behaviour is not repeated.<br />'' <br />'' The Chairman recalled that in 1997 and 2012, the House had resolved that all members will uphold the dignity of the House by complying with the Rules and Procedures and urged members to ensure the smooth functioning of the House.<br />'' <br />'' The Chairman said he has been associated with the Upper House for the 22 years and got anguished whenever bills are passed in the din. The Chairman said he was pained at the turn of events and had to perforce take action against members as per Rules and Procedures. He also lamented that some members announced the boycott of the House.<br />'' <br />'' Mr. Naidu said if the legislative work is not taken up during the boycott by some sections, it may legitimise such boycotts as an effective instrument of blocking legislation. Mr Naidu said though the current Session has been satisfying in terms of productivity, there have been some areas of concern as well.<br />'' <br />'' He underlined the need for pondering over such issues for making a difference in future. The Chairman lamented that for the first time in the history of the august House, a notice of motion for removal of the Deputy Chairman was given, which has been rejected.<br />'' <br />'' He further said the developments in the House surrounding this unprecedented move have been deeply painful for all those who hold the stature and the dignity of this august House dear to their hearts.<br />'' <br />'' Mr. Naidu said the overall productivity of the last four Sessions comes to a praiseworthy 96.13 per cent. This high productivity for four consecutive sessions is the best during the last five years, he noted.<br />'' <br />'' The Upper House passed 15 bills in the last two sittings with opposition parties boycotting the proceedings to protest the suspension of eight members on Monday for their unruly behaviour during the passage of two key bills relating to the farming sector.<br />'' <br />'' The Chairman said though it is not for the first time that some members are suspended and bills are passed when some sections of the House boycotted the proceedings. It is extremely unpalatable, the Chairman observed.<br />'' <br />'' In his concluding remarks, the Chairman said this kind of situation needs to be avoided by all means. The House passed key bills including three on labour reforms, two Appropriation Bills and the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment.<br />'' <br />'' <br />'' The Rajya Sabha bid farewell to eleven of its members who will retire in November this year. They include Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Prof. Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Veer Singh of Bahujan Samaj Party and Raj Babbar of Congress.<br />'' <br />'' Other members who will retire are Javed Ali Khan, Chandrapal Singh Yadav and Ravi Prakash Verma-all of the Samajwadi Party, P L Punia of the Congress, Rajaram of BSP, Neeraj Shekhar and Arun Singh, both of BJP.<br />'' <br />'' The three key labour reform bills passed today will remove impediments to winding up of companies and allow firing of staff without government permission in firms with up to 300 workers from the existing one hundred. The House passed by voice vote the three Labour Codes on Industrial Relations, Social Security and Occupational Safety amid a boycott by opposition parties, including the Congress and the Left, over the suspension of eight MPs.<br />'' <br />'' With the passage of these three bills, 29 central labour laws have been codified into four broad codes as contemplated by the government under labour reforms to improve the Ease of Doing Business and providing Universal Social Security to workers as well. The three codes were passed by the Lok Sabha yesterday. Replying to a debate on the three labour reforms bills, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar said, the purpose of labour reforms is to provide a transparent system to suit the changed business environment.<br />'' <br />'' The House also passed the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, 2020 for inclusion of Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi in the list of official languages in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, in addition to the existing Urdu and English. The Bill was passed by voice vote. Lok Sabha had cleared the bill yesterday.<br />'' <br />'' The Rajya Sabha also returned the Appropriation (No 3) Bill, 2020 and the Appropriation (No 4) Bill, 2020, authorising payment of certain sums from the Consolidated Fund of India for the current financial year. The bills, which were passed by the Lok Sabha on 19th of September were cleared by the Upper House with a voice vote without any discussion.<br />'' <br />'' The House also passed a bill that seeks to provide a legal framework for bilateral netting of qualified financial contracts. Replying to a brief discussion,<br />'' <br />'' Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asserted that the bill is critical for financial stability in the country. The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Sunday.<br />'' <br />'' The legislation allows for enforcement of netting for qualified financial contracts. The Minister said the bill brings in a firm legal basis for bilateral netting for two counter parties. The Bill is critical for financial stability in the country, she said.<br />'' <br />'' The Minister said the bill has been brought in to address the lessons learnt from the 2008 global financial crisis. She said that if the legislation was available in 2017, banks would have had 42,192 crore rupees for onward lending, but they had to keep it locked up.<br />'' <br />''  The Upper House also passed a bill to amend the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act to make furnishing of Aadhaar numbers by office bearers of NGOs mandatory for registration. Responding to a discussion, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said the legislation was not against any NGO and is an effort to bring in transparency over foreign funding.<br />'' <br />'' This is certainly a bill to bring transparency. It is not against NGOs in any case. But only those NGOs which do not adhere to transparency may feel bad. This bill is in the interest of NGOs and transparency, he said.<br />'' <br />'' The bill, passed by the Lok Sabha on Monday, proposes to enable the Centre to allow an NGO or Association to surrender its FCRA certificates. The Minister said the bill also seeks to bar public servants from receiving funds from abroad.    </span><br />''