New Delhi: There is an end-of-the-season sort of sale going in Parliament with staffers being offered clothes, shoes and fabric at throwaway prices.
The secretariat has put out a circular listing as many as 50 items available for sale—fabric for shirts, trousers, summer suits, winter suits, uniforms for marshals of the House, belts, shoes, socks, neckties and even leather gloves and jackets.
A leather jacket is available for Rs 1,600, while a pair of leather shoes for drivers and attendants can be bought for Rs 520. Shoes for protocol department officials, who handle VVIP guests and international seminars, are priced at Rs 1,200.
Similarly, fabrics from Mayur for protocol officers are available from Rs 473 per metre, while white shirts can be bought at Rs 300. But these items are only available for House officials and one can only buy up to 6 metres of fabric, Hindustan Times (HT) reported.
As many as 17 items are available at steeper discounts, including Reid and Tailor cloth for reporters’ uniforms at Rs 32 per metre or Raymond cloth for summer uniforms at just Rs 32 per metre, the report added.
Indian Parliament secretariat has about 2,500 officials. They only buy cloth for their uniform from the secretariat as it matches the prescribed colour and style.
Earlier, Lok Sabha officials would buy cloth once in two years and get the uniform stitched by any of the 4-5 Delhi tailors empanelled with the secretariat. Now, women officers get a uniform allowance of up to Rs 17,000 and men get up to Rs 16,000, depending on the nature of their jobs and ranks.
Reporting branch, table office and security service officials, drivers and chamber attendants are eligible for this uniform allowance, added the report.
