Team News Riveting
New Delhi, December 12
The Congress party is opposing the proposed new parliament building while its senior leader and the then Lok Sabha Speaker had approved the project in 2012.
Congress leader and former Lok-Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar had asked the urban development ministry in 2012 to work out a plan for the construction of a new parliament building.
A television channel had released a letter to substantiate Kumar’s move giving approval for the building in 2012. The letter of ex-Lok Sabha Speaker’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD) was sent to the then Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
The letter stated that the Speaker had given approval for the construction of a new Parliament building and that she said that the issue should be given top priority.
The letter was sent by the OSD to the then secretary of the urban development ministry on July 13, 2012 when Congress-led UPA was in power at the Centre. The letter read, “The Parliament building was constructed in the 1920s and commissioned in 1927 has been declared a Heritage Grade-I building. Over the decades on account of ageing and over-use the Parliament House building started showing the signs of distress at various places. The present sitting capacity of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is likely to go up after 2026”.
The letter further stated that if the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed the strength of the Lok Sabha might go up even before 2026. “The seat in Lok Sabha may go up before 2026 also if the Women’s Reservation Bill providing for augmented strength is passed by the Parliament. In such a scenario it will be necessary to have a new Lok Sabha chamber with larger sitting capacity”, the letter underlined.
It asked the urban development ministry to give suitable instructions to the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to identify an area in the proximity to the Parliament House Complex and to find a suitable location for constructing a state-of-the art new Parliament building.
Congress party had boycotted the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the new Parliament building on December 10. The party leaders had castigated the Prime Minister stating that the function was held when farmers were “fighting for their rights by protesting on streets.”
