Meira moots panel for Parliament upkeep

NEW DELHI: A parliamentary panel is likely to oversee maintenance of the Parliament House building, an 82-year-old colonial monument in the heart of the Capital.

Speaker Meira Kumar on Thursday proposed setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), with six Lok Sabha and four Rajya Sabha members for the purpose, at an all-party meeting convened by her ahead of the Winter Session of Parliament beginning on November 19.

The suggestion was made in the wake of alterations made over the years to the heritage structure, which was built with indigenous material in the 1920s. The edifice of the circular building constructed for Rs 83 lakh in Lutyen���s Delhi was the brainchild of Herbert Baker. It comprises three semicircular chambers for the Legislatures and a Central Library crowned by dome.

It is in these chambers that the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha proceedings are held with modern amenities like air conditioning and acoustics. At the meeting, representatives of political parties agreed that the Parliament building���s maintenance required to be done under expert advise so that the basic character of the architecture remains unchanged.

The parties also accepted Speaker���s suggestion that a minimum 100 days of Parliament sittings a year be made mandatory. The government said it was not opposed to the proposal but members should ensure that the House ran smoothly.

Opposition members, particularly those belonging to the Left, demanded a discussion on price rise, Maoist violence, disinvestment and merger of banks without parliamentary approval. Besides these, Parliament is also likely to take up issues like climate change, problems faced by farmers, including sugarcane growers, and trade unions��� rights are also expected to be raised in the House.

���We look forward to a stormy session otherwise it will get very boring,��� the Speaker said adding that the ���character of democracy��� was that different stands are taken by different political parties and those are discussed in the House.