PM Modi expected to reply to President's address on Monday

New Delhi, Feb 06: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to reply to the debate on the motion of thanks in Lok Sabha on Monday evening.

After the prime minister's reply, the Union Budget for 2022-23 will be discussed for 11 hours and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will reply on Friday. To enable this, Private Members' Business on Friday has been dispensed with.

During the first week in Rajya Sabha, 25 of the listed starred questions have been replied to orally in three days of Question Hour and 31 Zero Hour and 14 Special Mentions were made by members during Zero Hour, reduced by half an hour per sitting, the officials claimed.

Fifteen Private Members' Bills were introduced during the week.

While two pending private members' bills were discussed, the Companies (Amendment Bill), 2019 was withdrawn after completion of discussion by Vinay Sahasrabuddhe. Discussion on the Population Regulation Bill, 2019, moved by Rakesh Sinha, is continuing.

Rajya Sabha witnessed functioning for three consecutive days during the week without forced adjournments after a year, the last time being March 15-17, 2021, during the Budget session last year, officials in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat have said.

The productivity of Rajya Sabha has been 100 percent or more for four consecutive Budget sessions of 2014 to 2017 and of regular Budget session in 2019, officials said. It was 28.90 percent in 2018 and 6.80 percent during 2019 (Interim Budget session) and productivity was 76.10 percent in 2020 and 93.50 percent during the Budget session last year, the RS Secretariat said.