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New Delhi is getting spruced up to welcome the new Member of Parliaments. With days left for new MPs' arrival, the Speaker's office and Lok Sabha Secretariat have formed special task forces to welcome MPs at airports and railway stations.
For new MPs, the priority is accommodation. To sort out this, the Union Ministry of Urban Development has set things in motion. Special training centres -- with specially trained employees of Union Ministry of Parliamentary affairs -- are being deployed at Airports from May 17-May 25.
Once the results are announced, special efforts will be made by the Notice Office of the Lok Sabha Secretariat to contact informally the new MPs to find out their schedule and their mode of transportation.
State government representatives in Delhi are also being involved in this exercise. With the completion of the third phase polls to the Lok Sabha on Thursday, the Union Ministry of Urban Development as a first step, to cater the immediate need of boarding and lodging of new MPs, held a high-level meeting, discussing immediate temporary accommodation in state guest houses in New Delhi. The new MPs would begin to arrive in New Delhi from May 18 onwards.
M Ramachandran, Secretary of Union Ministry of Urban Development, called a meeting of Resident Representatives of 28 state governments who are in-charge of state Guest Houses in New Delhi.
The meeting deliberated broadly about immediate accommodation for MPs and also for their guests -- for 10 days from May 18.
Each state government has either one or two guest houses in New Delhi, having an estimated number of 50-80 double rooms under their control. In total, 1400 rooms are being estimated for guests.