Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor has urged Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to consider the possibility of holding a five-day sitting of both the Houses of Parliament outside New Delhi, preferably in Bangalore.

In a letter to Ms. Kumar, the former UN diplomat turned parliamentarian said a decision in this regard might be announced during a function organised to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the first sitting of the First Lok Sabha on May 13, a press note issued by his constituency office said on Saturday.

‘Symbolic' move

He said it would be a symbolic gesture, which would give the people a fresh look at the vital role played by the Parliament of the country.

Mr. Tharoor, who represents Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala in the Lok Sabha, expressed concern over frequent disruptions in Parliament and criticism heaped on parliamentarians by certain quarters. Mr. Tharoor said holding a session outside Delhi would give an opportunity to people to have a look at the functioning of the Parliament.

‘To the people'

“It would be a symbolic gesture to take the Parliament itself to the people in order to enable them to have a fresh look at the functioning of the Houses and the vital work they do in the governance of this vast nation of 1.2 billion people, constituting one-fifth of humanity,” he said.

He said Bangalore was typical of the dynamic face of new India, and the younger generation of the city represented a cross-section of the flower of the nation in whom the future responsibilities of nation-building rests.

He said the idea of holding sittings of the full Parliament outside New Delhi had been discussed in the past, but that for various reasons — mostly, financial, logistical and infrastructural — could not be implemented.

Such reasons, however, were not valid in this era of advanced technology, computers, communication facilities and strong infrastructure. — PTI