Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi on Friday complimented members for their "cooperation and orderly behaviour" that led to a successful completion of the winter session.
Addressing the press after the sine die adjournment of the winter session, Joshi said, "The most important thing of this session was that not a single member came to the well of the House." He said that such a smooth conduct was "unprecedented in the last 30 years".
He recalled that on the eve of the session he had met the prominent leaders of various political parties to ensure "smooth and orderly" functioning of the House.
"The leaders of the opposition and other political parties responded extremely positively and had assured of their full cooperation in the running of the House. The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs [Pramod Mahajan] had assured that the government was willing to discuss any matter under any rule in the ensuing session," he said.
"I complement all the members for their cooperation and for living up to their assurances," Joshi said, while disclosing that the likely date for the next budget session could be February 17, 2003.
He said the current session (eleventh session of the XIII Lok Sabha) sat for 160 hours, with 23 actual days of sitting.
Thirty-seven bills were passed, 461 starred and 5089 unstarred questions were answered, 237 matters were raised under rule 377, while 42 reports were presented, he said.
Under the rule 193 the recent political development in Uttar Pradesh, problems faced by the farmers in the country, the issue of internal security, discussion of Public Sector Undertakings and problems being faced by sugarcane growers were discussed, he said. "Seven issues came up for discussion under the calling attention notice of members."
