New Delhi, Mar 8 (IANS): The Upper House will return to its pre-Covid working time of 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the members will be seated in the Rajya Sabha chamber and gallery in accordance with the social distancing norms.

Vandana Chavan, who was in chair, made the announcement on Monday. She said, "The House will resume from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday and members will be seated in the Rajya Sabha chamber and gallery with social distancing. The seating arrangement will be displayed."

Earlier, due to the Covid protocol the House was working from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the members were seated in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha Chambers and galleries.

The House was adjourned for the day after the Opposition forced multiple adjournments in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, the first day of the second half of the Budget Session as it pressed for discussion on the fuel price hike.

The House was first adjourned till 11 a.m. and when it met again, the Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge repeated the earlier demand. The Deputy Chairman Harivansh said the ruling of the Chairman could not be reconsidered. Pandemonium soon followed and the House was again adjourned till 1 p.m. then till 1.15 p.m. after that till 1.30 pm and finally for the day.

Earlier, the Chairman of the House M.Venkaiah Naidu rejected Leader of opposition Mallikarjun Kharge's notice of suspension of business under rule 267.

Kharge said, "The petrol price has reached Rs 100 per litre in some parts of the country and the government has earned more than Rs 20 lakh crore in the last six years through taxes and its utmost important to discuss it."

But the Chair did not allow the notice and said that it was against the rules. The House was adjourned after the Congress MPs resorted to sloganeering. "I don't want to take drastic action on the first day," Venkaiah Naidu said.