- By Chetna Shree
- Fri, 25 Jul 2025 04:04 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Parliament Monsoon Session: It's been five days since the Monsoon Session of Parliament began, but the proceedings on each day were marred by intense protests by the opposition members over a number of issues, including the Bihar SIR, Operation Sindoor and the Pahalgam terror attack. Since Monday, both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha have witnessed repeated adjournments, raising concerns about productivity.
Besides productivity, the adjournments are taking a whopping toll on taxpayers' pockets as each minute of parliamentary session in both houses costs Rs 2.5 lakh. The Parliament monsoon session began on Monday (July 21), and two key issues, the Bihar Special Intensive Revision (SIR) for electoral rolls and the demand by Opposition parties for a discussion on Operation Sindoor, have stalled progress in both houses.
Each house of the Parliament is expected to be productive for six hours a day, excluding one hour for lunch. As per the estimates calculated in 2012, shared by the then Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pawan Bansal, one minute of Parliament session costs Rs 2.5 lakh.
"Running the Parliament for one minute while in session costs Rs 2.5 lakh - or Rs 1.25 lakh each for the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha," the then Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pawan Bansal, said in 2012. The figures are a conservative estimate as they are from over a decade ago. In 2025, due to inflation and rising administrative costs, the figures are likely to go up. Though in the absence of updated ones, these figures can be used for calculations.
Parliament Monsoon Session: Disruptions Cost Taxpayers Rs 23 Crore
According to the data shared by a non-profit PRS Legislative Research on Wednesday about the parliamentary hours lost due to disruptions, Rajya Sabha has functioned for 4.4 hours (or 264 minutes), losing 816 minutes, and Lok Sabha has worked for barely 0.9 hours (or 54 minutes) till Wednesday, losing 1026 minutes. There have been five days in the Parliament monsoon session as of July 25, and each house was supposed to work for 30 hours.
This means the repeated disruptions in the Parliament monsoon session have cost the taxpayer Rs 10.2 crore for the Rajya Sabha (816 minutes lost multiplied by 1.25 lakh) and Rs 12.83 crore for the Lok Sabha (1026 minutes lost multiplied by 1.25 lakh). The three days of disruption have cost taxpayers Rs 23 crore. The figures are likely to increase as the Parliament session was adjourned again on Friday till August 28.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday accused the opposition of wasting taxpayers' money. "The Opposition party leaders are all present here. In the Business Advisory meeting, it was decided that there would be a discussion on Operation Sindoor, and a fixed time was agreed upon. All issues cannot be taken up at once. Yet, instead of cooperating, they came with placards and disrupted the House," Rijiju said in Lok Sabha.