Parliament readies for new members

 As the general elections enter the last lap, Parliament is getting a fresh coat of paint and its interiors are being spruced up to welcome newly elected members of the Lok Sabha.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat expects new members to start arriving from May 16, the day the results would be announced. Accordingly, guide posts would be in place at railway stations and the airport to receive the members.

“The guide posts at Old Delhi, Hazrat Nizamuddin and New Delhi railway stations and Terminal 3 and 1D of the airport here would be functional from May 16,” Parliament sources said. Painters were seen giving finishing touches to the lobbies and chambers of the red sandstone structure and a lone tailor was busy stitching red carpets to be laid in a section of the lobbies in Parliament House.

A temporary studio is being set up in a room in Parliament House for clicking photographs of the newly elected members. These photographs would be used for their identity cards, alongside information on the website and in a book that would have brief profiles of each member.

Each member would be handed out an information kit which includes 31 booklets on general rules and procedures, a member’s handbook, 40 small booklets on procedures of the Lok Sabha, demarcation of responsibilities in the central government. Also, each one has to fill 15-20 forms on personal information for availing various privileges, including accommodation, transport facilities.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat is also making preparations to host an orientation programme.
A communication has even been sent to the Department of Estates under the Urban Development Ministry requesting them to arrange accommodation for the newly elected members. Newly-elected members will be provided transit accommodation in various state guest houses in the capital till members of the outgoing LS, who have lost in the elections, vacate their houses allotted to them.

Eight phases of the Lok Sabha elections have been completed and polling for the last phase would be held on May 12.