If a Member of Parliament wishes to retain, relinquish or transfer the accommodation allocated to him from the Lok Sabha pool of houses or the Rajya Sabha pool, it will be obligatory for the Member to inform the concerned House committee, the government announced on Friday.
In a bid to streamline the allocation of houses, the government has issued a new standard operating procedure for MPs to follow. The new regulation comes in the wake of confusion that had recently arisen after the same accommodation was allocated to two different MPs by the two housing committees.
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Under the new SOP, approved by the Minister of Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu, if the concerned MP fails to notify the concerned housing committee about the change in accommodation, then the Committee can initiate eviction proceedings. “If a member of one House of Parliament gets elected to the other House, he or she has to vacate the accommodation they’re staying in and seek a new accommodation from the House Committee of the House of Parliament he or she has been elected to.
If a Rajya Sabha member gets elected to Lok Sabha and wants to retain the House of Rajya Sabha pool he or she was staying in, such member should get accommodation of corresponding category to be transferred to Rajya Sabha pool from the Lok Sabha House Committee. On his or her retirement or resignation from Lok Sabha, the said House would be reverted to Rajya Sabha Housing Pool. The same applies in case of a Lok Sabha member getting elected to Rajya Sabha,” explained a UD Offical.
To illustrate the confusion flowing out of non-transfer on accommodation from one pool to the other, the Official said recently a member of Rajya Sabha who was elected to Lok Sabha in 2014 and became a Minister and some months later got a higher category of accommodation. “Lok Sabha House Committee felt that with his election to the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha pool accommodation he was earlier staying at got transferred to Lok Sabha and allotted the same to a new member of Lok Sabha. Rajya Sabha House Committee allotted the same to a new member of Rajya Sabha resulting in confusion and embarrassment,” the Official said.
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With the new SOP, CPWD, which maintains these houses will not change the status of any Rajya Sabha Pool accommodation in their records without the concurrence of House Committee of Rajya Sabha. It will also not handover possession of such flats without the written permission of House Committees of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha as the case may be, the Official said.