New Delhi : Even as the polling for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections has completed four of the seven phases, preparations for the 18th Lok Sabha are now in full swing in Parliament. Special teams of officials have been constituted and temporary receptions halls have been set up to provide the new MPs with key facilities.
The new Parliament building in New Delhi. (File)
“When newly-elected MPs come to Delhi, be it by road or rail or by air, our teams will receive them at designated points and bring them to the reception centres. There, the MPs’ registration will be done, smart cards will be issued and the temporary accommodation will also be allotted,” said a senior official involved in the process.
The Lok Sabha secretariat will set up special reception centres at all the terminals of the Delhi airport and have a similar set up at the rail stations in the national capital. “We will also have officers fluent in national languages for better communication with MPs, particularly from the non-Hindi speaking states,” said another official.
Apart from housing, the other facilities extended to a newly-elected MP would include new phone connections, Fastag for MPs vehicles, smart identity cards for the access to the new parliament building, a new bank account with the Parliament branch of the State Bank of India, submission of forms for diplomatic passports, creation of official email account for MPs and enrolment in Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) for health service.
“We will also take a photograph for our portal and collect resume for our data base,” said another official.
A large reception centre has been planned at the extension of the parliament annexe building that has all modern facilities. “All newly-elected lawmakers will be escorted by our officials to the reception centre in Parliament complex. We will extend all facilities under one roof,” said the first official.
A third official of the Lok Sabha secretariat added that different state guest houses in Delhi have earmarked rooms to host newly-elected MPs who don’t have any official accommodation in Delhi. “A number of sitting MPs are likely to be re-elected so they won’t need any temporary accommodation. But new MPs will be allotted rooms either in their state guest houses or in the Western Court.”
Till last year, a few MPs were allotted rooms at the state-run Ashoka Hotel. “Last year, we had a large number of first-time MPs. This time, we would not put lawmakers in a hotel. As we have enough rooms available at state guest houses and western courts,” said the third official.
All the reception centres will be completed by June 4, the date of the announcement of results.
In 2019, conference rooms in the old Parliament building, which is renamed as the Constitution Sabha—were turned into reception centres for the newly-elected MPs. But after the construction of the extension of the annexe building and the new Parliament, all activities will shift to these places.
(Courtesy : The Hindustan Times)
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