Speaker’s tour of Parliament ends in museum

From next year, people will be able to get a peek into how Parliament functions, courtesy Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. Parliament is set to g...

From next year, people will be able to get a peek into how Parliament functions, courtesy Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. Parliament is set to get a Rs 3.5 crore hi-tech museum on 1,150 sq m area in the library building.

An innocuous tour of the Library building by Chatterjee on July 14 last year ended in a near-empty room designated as the Parliament Museum. And, it is the ‘‘stark emptiness’’ of the room (No G118 in Block D, Parliament building) that sparked off the project.

The project is being developed by Dr Saroj Ghosh, advisor to Kolkata museum and former president of the International Council of Museum of UNESCO in Paris. Expected to be ready in 15 months, the museum would be inaugurated on August 15, 2006.

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Ghosh already made a preliminary presentation on January 27. Assisted by the Kolkata Museum, Ghosh would be developing models, graphics etc. A small auditorium is also being planned.

‘‘New techniques like animatronics would be used to recreate the past — the Constituent Assembly, B.R. Ambedkar’s interventions and other historic moments,’’ a senior Lok Sabha official said.

The project was first initiated by former Speaker Rabi Roy in 1992. The small museum set up in Parliament Annexe was almost forgotten as none of the subsequent Speakers showed any interest.

‘‘He (Chatterjee) has given instructions that security should not be made an issue to stop people from visiting the museum,’’ officials said.

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The museum will be laid out under several board headings: democratic heritage, legislature in British India, freedom movement, unity in diversity, evolution of multi-party system, national leaders, transfer of power, Constitution of India, federal structure of the country, parliamentary procedures, parliamentary building and interaction with other democracies.

Even a kiosk to sell mementoes of parliament would be put up. The project would be funded by the Lok Sabha.