New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan (76), who was elected to the House eighth times from Indore, is not contesting this election and yet she is engaged in preparations for facilitating the MPs elected to the 17th Lok Sabha. In a fiat issued early this month, she has ordered the Lok Sabha Secretariat not to book rooms in the five-star hotels in the capital for the stay of new MPs until they are allotted the government accommodation.
Noting that crores were spent on the MPs staying in the hotels, some even up to six months, in the outgoing Lok Sabha, Mahajan got arrangements made for the first timers in Western Court, the MPs’ hostel on the Janpath, as also in the state governments’ guest houses.
The Lok Sabha secretariat sources said 100 suites have been booked in the Western Court while the state government guest houses have been requested to reserve 280 rooms for the MPs who will start arriving in the capital after the results are out on Thursday.
The secretariat has already set up the reception centres at both the airport and railway stations to receive the MPs and guide them to the accommodation reserved for them. It is estimated that there will be around 250 new MPs who will require the accommodation. There will be no problem of accommodation in case of the MPs re-elected or those from the Rajya Sabha since they already have the accommodation.
To facilitate the new MPs, the secretariat is geared up to write to the MPs who did not contest again or who lose to vacate their government flats and bungalows within one month. Once these are vacated, the Central Public Works Department will get 15 days to make them ready for allotment to the new MPs.