In two days, MLA hostel to welcome its new arrivals

With the counting of votes just few hours away, the Estate Department is ready to welcome the newly-elected 403 MLAs at Lucknow's "Vidhayak Niwas" .

The department is busy furnishing and arranging necessary items in the flats to be provided to the newly elected MLAs. Articles like RO machine for drinking water, TV sets, refrigerators, cooler or AC sets are already there and are being checked to find whether they are operational. "No newly-elected MLA wants used items like mattress, pillows, buckets and mugs in their houses. So, we replace the old ones," an official said.

The returning officers of the constituencies would hand over the allotment letters of the flats to the winning candidates, along with the certificate of election. So the MLAs would know where they will be going to stay in Lucknow. The allotment letters have been sent to all district magistrates.

This time, the flats have been earmarked on the basis of constituency. As a result, sitting MLAs who will get re-elected can stay in their previous flats.

Officials said the MLAs start rushing to Lucknow within 48 hours of their victory. A centralized control room has been set up to help them. "It is possible that an MLA may forget to carry his house allotment letter. The control room will help them find their flat. It will be manned by 40 persons and will work 24X7 from March 8," the official said.

A major problem faced by the department is that the flats are not vacated by those who lose the election.A committee, headed by joint director R P Singh, has been formed to ensure vacation of such flat. "Since those who lose election can retain their flats for 15 days, we are making arrangement for the temporary stay of MLAs whose flats are not immediately available,'' said the official.

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