India, Aug. 21 -- The Lok Sabha lost 83 potential work hours in the monsoon session due to forced adjournments, according to its secretariat. This meant the month-long session that started on July 21 could have 21 sittings with only 37 hours of effective business.

Both Houses were adjourned sine dine on Thursday.

Explaining the arithmatic, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said that all parties had decided at the beginning of the session that discussions would last 120 hours. "The Business Advisory Committee also agreed to this; but due to continuous deadlock and planned disruptions, the House could barely work for 37 hours in this session," Om Birla said.

He shared more figures. Of the 419 starred questions listed on the agenda of the sessio...