NEW DELHI: Inaugurating a complex of multi-storey flats for parliamentarians, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday suggested that the residential premises housing the MPs should celebrate India’s different festivals and compete on cleanliness.Taking a swipe at his rivals, he said some people may link Kosi, the name of one of the four towers christened after different rivers, to the upcoming Bihar assembly polls, but he will tell such “small-minded” people that the tradition of naming towers after rivers unites people.The new complex in Baba Kharak Singh Marg close to Parliament House comprises 184 type-VII multi-storey flats.Modi said there had long been a shortage of residences for MPs and first-time members had to struggle to get a house.However, no new residence was built for Lok Sabha MPs between 2004 and 2014, when the Congress-led UPA was in power, and his government has constructed around 350 of them, he noted.”The India of the 21st century is as sensitive as it is eager for development,” he said, adding that his government built a new government secretariat, Parliament building and houses for MPs and also constructed over four crore homes for the poor, hundreds of medical colleges and provided piped water supply for households.Old houses for MPs were in a poor state and posed several problems, the prime minister said, adding that lawmakers will face no such issue in these modern flats, each with a carpet area of over 5,000 sq ft.When MPs are free of their own problems, they can use their time and energy more effectively on addressing people’s problems, Modi said.These flats will also help save money as the government spent a considerable sum in maintaining old houses, he added.
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