– Yogesh Kumar Goyal
The construction work of the country’s new parliament has been completed. It is being inaugurated on 28 May. The issue of building a new parliament has been the focal point of politics since its inception and now even at the time of its inauguration, there is a tussle between the ruling party and the opposition. The foundation stone of the new Indian Parliament building was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 10, 2020, which has been completed with high quality in less than two and a half years. With its inauguration on May 28, the old building of Parliament will become a part of the ancient heritage.
In the beginning, where the opposition attacked the government for the huge expenditure involved in the formation of the new parliament, now questions are being raised about the timing of its inauguration and its inauguration by the Prime Minister. In fact, the government has chosen the day of Veer Savarkar’s birth anniversary for its inauguration, which the opposition is not liking. The opposition argues that it could have been inaugurated on Independence Day or any other such historical occasion. Apart from this, the opposition also says in one voice that the inauguration of the new Parliament House should not be done by the Prime Minister, but by the President, His Excellency Draupadi Murmu.
However, the political tussle is in its place, but the question is also that why there was a need to build a new building after spending hundreds of crores of rupees despite the presence of the old grand and strong Parliament House built during the British era? It is important to know here that the old Parliament House has completed 100 years and its term was fixed for this. Secondly, the number of seats for sitting members in the old parliament is limited. The number of seats in both the Houses has been increased in the new building of the Parliament so that there is no problem in case of increase in the seats in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in future. There is a possibility of delimitation of Lok Sabha seats in the country afresh in 2026, after which the increase in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats is believed to be certain. There are currently 545 MPs in the Lok Sabha and the current Lok Sabha has a seating capacity of about 550 Members of Parliament. After the work of delimitation, the number of MPs is certain to increase from the present 545. It is believed that this number can be from 100 to 150. The question is where will more than 150 MPs sit then. Similarly, Rajya Sabha seats can also increase after delimitation. This is the reason why a new building will be needed to meet these future needs so that all MPs can do their work easily.
In view of the lack of facilities in the British-era Parliament House and the flaws in its infrastructure, on July 13, 2012, during the Congress regime, Lok Sabha Speaker Meera Kumar, followed by Sumitra Mahajan on December 9, 2015, and on August 2, 2019, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla sent a letter to the government. Had written a letter requesting for a new Parliament House. While laying the foundation stone of the new building, the Prime Minister had underlined this and said that the MPs themselves had been demanding for many years that the existing Parliament House does not have arrangements according to their needs, nor do the MPs have offices in the Parliament House. The problem was that due to paucity of space in the existing Parliament House complex, it was not even possible to make all these arrangements. Each MP will be provided 40 square meters of office space in the new Parliament House. In the new building of Parliament, the size of Rajya Sabha will increase as compared to earlier and the size of Lok Sabha will also be three times more than the existing one.
According to the Lok Sabha Secretariat, the new building of Parliament will have a separate office for each MP and each office will be equipped with all modern digital technologies. The offices of MPs in the new Parliament are being equipped with the latest digital interfaces to make them paperless offices and these offices will be connected by underground tunnels. The House has a seating arrangement of two members on each bench and each seat has been equipped with a digital system and a touchscreen. Constitution Hall, MP Lodge, Library, Committee Room, Restaurant and Parking have also been arranged in the new building and there is a seating arrangement for about 1400 MPs in the building.
The new building has been built adjacent to the existing Parliament House under the Central Vista redevelopment project, for which Tata Projects Limited had won the tender. The work of the new building of the Parliament was estimated to be completed in a period of about 22 months, but due to some technical reasons, there has been a slight delay in it. Wood has been extensively used in the interior and exterior decoration of the new building and beautiful workmanship has been done on it to enhance the grandeur and beauty of the building. For this, beautiful designs have been carved by the craftsmen and artisans of Mumbai on the wood imported from Nagpur. The new Parliament building has been designed by Ahmedabad-based HCP Design, Planning and Management under the guidance of architect Bimal Patel.
The architects took inspiration from the parliaments of many countries after inspecting them to build the new building of the parliament. Arrangements have also been made for rain harvesting system and water recycling system in the new Parliament. The new parliament will be completely free from air and noise pollution and it will also have energy savings from the solar system. This grand triangular shaped building equipped with all security facilities has been built with earthquake resistant technology. Built in an area of ​​64, 500 square meters, the new Parliament House has a total of four floors including a basement, the height of which is the same as the existing Parliament House. The Lok Sabha chamber is designed like the national bird peacock while the Rajya Sabha chamber is designed like the national flower lotus. The new Parliament building also has high-quality sound, modern audio-visual facilities, data network systems, comfortable seating arrangements, effective and inclusive emergency evacuation, while adhering to the highest structural safety standards. The new Parliament building is triangular, which has been constructed according to Vedic architecture and is equipped with state-of-the-art, technical facilities and is also energy efficient. Overall, the decor of the new building is a rich amalgamation of the diversity of Indian culture, regional arts, crafts and architecture.
(The author is a freelance commentator.)
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