Staff Reporter / NEW DELHI
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla today defended the construction of new Parliament building as part of Central Vista project.
Talking to media persons Speaker said that the 100-year-old building is unsafe and not appropriate for several functions of the House.
Mr Birla said, it is not a matter of the government’s ego. He informed that both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha had requested the government that the current building is now 100 years old and is not earthquake-safe.
The Speaker said, the iconic building constructed by the British is inadequate in many ways and a new-age green building is being built at a cost of Rs 900 crore. Mr Birla also said, money is being saved in Parliament workings and over Rs 400 crore have been saved so far.
Speaking about vaccination of all MPs, Mr Birla said so far 440 Lok Sabha MPs have been informed that they have taken the vaccine against COVID-19.
Mr Birla said that the journey of the first two years of the 17th Lok Sabha has been historic in many ways. He further said that despite the challenge presented by COVID-19, Members of Parliament have successfully discharged their constitutional duties in the five Sessions of Lok Sabha that have been held so far.
Speaking about the record productivity of the Seventeenth Lok Sabha, Birla mentioned that the average productivity of the five Sessions held so far stood at 122 per cent.
He also said that in the first two years, 107 Bills have been passed in the 17th Lok Sabha after extensive discussions, which took about 263 hours. This was more than the allotted time. Mr Birla further informed that a total of 1744 members participated in the discussions on these bills.
Referring to the importance of Question Hour, Mr Birla said that in the five Sessions of the 17th Lok Sabha so far, the average number of answers given to oral questions per sitting is 5.37, which is the highest in the last four Lok Sabhas. Speaking about paperless office and digital technology, Mr Birla said that remarkable progress has been made in the direction of taking parliamentary papers to more and more digital platforms. He further said that during the fifth Session of the 17th Lok Sabha, e-notices were received for more than 90 percent questions.
On giving adequate time and opportunity to the Members during Zero Hour, Birla said that during the Zero Hour, Members present the problems of their parliamentary constituencies to the House so that the Executive could take steps for speedy disposal of those matters. He said that Zero Hour is very important from this point of view.
Regarding the matters under Rule 377, Mr Birla said that there has been a significant increase in the receipt of replies from the Ministries. He informed that now about 90% of matters are being answered.
Mentioning to monitoring of expenditure in Lok Sabha Secretariat that resulted in huge savings, Mr Birla said that an amount of Rs 151.44 Cr was saved during 2019-20. Similarly an amount of Rs 249.54 Cr was saved during 2020-21.