Instead of five-star hotels, new Members of Parliament who are in town for the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha that started on Monday are being housed at the Western Court hostel complex, including the new Western Court Annexe that was constructed last year.
As they await allotment of houses, the MPs will not be staying at hotels like previous years, instead they will be accommodated at state bhavans, Western Court and other government facilities, a Lok Sabha Secretariat official said.
The annexe, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 4, 2018, has a total of 88 rooms, of which 78 have been booked for MPs, a Central Public Works Department (CPWD) official said. In the historic old building at Western Court, 30 of the 74 rooms have been kept aside for the Lok Sabha MPs, the official said. The hostel complex also has a canteen run by ITDC. As of Monday evening, about 70 of the rooms for MPs had been taken up, the official said, adding that the annexe was being used to house MPs for the first time.
Making headlines
At the inauguration of the annexe building, the Prime Minister had said that newly-elected MPs have to stay at hotels “and this makes headlines.”
“However, he said that what is often missed is that previous occupants overstay beyond the designated time,” a government statement about the inauguration had said.
With outgoing MPs taking time to vacate their official residences, the homes take time to be readied for the new occupants. In 2014, first-time MPs were accommodated in hotels as they waited to be given their official residences, leading to a huge bill for the exchequer.
