By IANS
New Delhi : Nobody knew that Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, famous for ticking off noisy MPs, has a soft corner for children. That is why his decision to open a children’s corner in the parliament library building came as a surprise to many.
On Tuesday, away from the confusion and confabulations over a looming political crisis, Chatterjee inaugurated a corner in the library building complete with comics, short story books, children’s fiction and video games.
The room, located at the right side of the main entrance to the library building, has four computers and a flat screen television. “Parents, who come to visit parliament or the museum can leave their kids here. The children will definitely enjoy the break,” said an official in the Lok Sabha secretariat.
Children can pick up books from different sections – plays, short stories, poetry, health, mystery stories, fairy tales, and on diet – and sit on the comfortable and colourful bean bags to read them, while for computer-savvy kids there are the most modern systems to entertain them.
To give a fun touch to the room, colourful dolls have been kept on the shelves.
A wide variety of atlases, world books and Harry Potter books are expected to grab the attention of visiting children. Although there is a section for regional language books for children, it has only Bangla books as of now.
The special corner, set up by the Chatterjee-headed 40-member parliament forum on children, is meant for inculcating reading habits among kids and helping them know about the country’s rich and vast resources.
The plan to set up a special section was announced on Children’s Day – Nov 14 last year by Chatterjee.
Officials said such an arrangement for children exists only in the National Diet Library of Japan.