Avoid legislative disruptions: President

New Delhi, Jan 26: President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said that while India's "noisy" and deep-rooted democracy has to be celebrated, the focus should be on debate and discussion and not disruptions.

The President rued that these days legislatures lose much of their precious time in disruptions instead of debating and discussing relevant issues.

"We have a noisy democracy. Yet, we need more and not less of democracy. The strength of our democracy is evidenced by the fact that over 66 per cent of the total electorate of 834 million voted in the 2014 general elections," the President said.

He said that the "depth and breadth of our democracy sparkles" in the regular elections being held in our Panchayati Raj Institutions.

"And yet, our legislatures lose sessions to disruptions when they should be debating and legislating on issues of importance. Collective efforts must be made to bring the focus back to debate, discussion and decision-making," he added.

In the last winter session, the Lok Sabha could transact just 17.39 per cent of its scheduled business in the 19 hours that it worked, while the Rajya Sabha transacted 20.61 per cent of the listed business in its 22 working hours.