Sky-blue is the colour of House of Representatives and red that of Upper House

- Narayan Neupane 
Kathmandu, The Legislature-Parliament Secretariat is using different colours of upholstery and carpet to refurbish the House of Representatives and the National Assembly meeting halls so as to give them their distinct identity. 
Secretariat spokesperson, Dr Bharat Raj Gautam said sky-blue upholstery and carpet would be used in the House of Representatives assembly hall while the same would be red for the National Assembly meeting hall. 
"What we see in international practice is that mostly the red colour is used in the Upper House and green in the Lower House of parliament. We have selected blue, which is the symbol of peace, for the Lower House and Red for the Upper House, both the colours of our National Flag," Sharma explained about the selection of the colours. 
The Parliament Secretariat, few days back, had sent its high-level officials to Australia and Ukraine, which are considered to be practicing the best form of federalism in the world, to study and observe the parliamentary activities these countries have adopted, so that to what extent and ways we could adopt their positive practices. 
What the study team found was that the Parliament was the first choice of destination for visit of many students and visitors since the parliament of these countries attached highest importance to research and library. 
The Parliament-Secretariat spokesperson said they were carrying out refurnishing works giving first priority to the infrastructure in the context of making the federal parliament lawmaker and technology-friendly. 
National Assembly meeting hall to be ready by January 29 
In this connection, the Secretariat is carrying out repair and refurbishing of the main meeting hall where the Constituent Assembly meetings used by held in the past, at New Baneshwar for the purpose of holding the meeting of the House of Representatives and for joint parliament sessions. 
Similarly, the Nupse Hall, which is just east of the main hall of the International Convention Centre Building, is being refurbished for use by the National Assembly. The hall to be used by the House of Representatives will have 334 chairs. 
The estimated cost for repair and refurbishing of both the meeting halls is Rs 35 million. According to Dr Gautam, the House of Representatives meeting hall will be ready by January 14 and that of the National Assembly would be ready by January 29, from the perspective of installation of mikes and seats as well as construction of other infrastructures. 
The House of Representatives has 275 members and the National Assembly 59 members. 
The Parliament Secretariat is currently busy with works that it needs to carry out before the parliament session like conducting orientation to the MPs on the workings of the federal parliament, its role, the provisions related to the parliament that are contained in the constitution, the origin of bills and the process for the passage of bills in the parliament, the relation between the Lower House and the Upper House, among other topics. 
"We are in the preparation phase of the federal parliament session and works that need to be carried out by the Secretariat before the parliament session is called are in progress," spokesperson Gautam said. 
Library and research to be institutionalised 
The Parliament Secretariat is thinking of developing the parliament's library and research works with experts in an institutionalised manner in the coming days. 
Annual operational cost Rs 1.7 billion 
The Parliament Secretariat has estimated the annual cost of operating the federal parliament (House of Representatives and National Assembly) to be Rs 1.7 billion. 
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