[ INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT INDIAN PARLIAMENT ]

Parliament or Sansad is the supreme legislative body of this country India.The Parliament occupies the top most hierarchy in the democratic polity. The parliament of India has three constituents 

1. The President, 
2. Rajya Sabha (Council of states)
3. Lok Sabha (House of People)

• The name of Indian Parliament is “Sansad” or “Bhartiya Sansad”
• Indian Parliament is Bicameral and consists of Two Houses Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.
• President of India is called as first constituent (or a part) of Indian Parliament along with Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
• The total strength of Parliament members including Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is 795 (250 + 545).
• The Parliament building was designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker and was inaugurated by Lord Irvin, the then Governor General of India in 1927.
• The construction of the building took 6 years and total cost of construction was 8.3 million Indian rupees.
• The Indian parliament is circular in shape with 170 meter diameter and it covers an area of 6 acres.The circular aspect out the Indian Parliament represents “continuity”.
• Central Hall is located in middle of parliament house. Rajya Sabha (Upper House), Lok Sabha (Lower House) and Library Hall are located radially outside central hall at equiangular spacing. There are three garden courts located in the middle of these three chambers.
• There is four storied structure around these chambers which contains offices and accommodation for minister of Parliamentary affairs and its staff, other offices of secretaries.
• The open verandah on first floor has total 144 numbers of sandstone columns. Height of each column is 27 feet.
• There are 12 entrance gates to the Parliament House, but Gate # 1 which opens at Sandad Marg is used as the main entrance.
• At the time of inception, during British era, the name of this building was Council House. The three houses inside the main premises were called as i) Council of State (Rajya Sabha presently),  ii) Legislative Assembly (Lok Sabha presently) and iii) Chamber of Princes (Library Hall now).
• The Central Hall is also circular in shape and there is a dome on its top with a diameter of 30 meter.
• The color of the carpets of both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha are different. Rajya Sabha bears red carpet while Lok Sabha has green color carpet. Red represents royalty and majesty. Rajya Sabha is also called as Upper House. Upper symbolizes greatness and royalty, so the red color carpet compliments the upper house of parliament. Lok Sabha is called as Lower House or House of people. Green color symbolizes greenery, field and vegetation to which common people are associated with. 
• Parliament Library is the second largest library in India after National Library of Belvedere Estate, Kolkata. Parliament library was founded in year 1921. There are large number of books on vast topics in different languages to assist the parliamentarians.
• Rajya Sabha (Upper House) has a term of six years while that of Lok Sabha (Lower House) has term of 5 years.
• Minimum age criteria for Rajya Sabha member is 30 years while for Lok Sabha member is 25 years.
• Rajya Sabha has 250 members out of which 238 belongs to states and remaining 12 are from union territories.
• Lok Sabha has 545 members, out of which 530 comes from states and maximum 20 can be elected from union territories.
• Rajya Sabha members are elected indirectly by members of State legislative assemblies. Lok Sabha members are elected directly by citizens in general elections held every five year.
• Oldest member ever served the Indian Parliament was Rishang Keishing. He was Rajya Sabha member from Congress party representing Manipur state. He served Rajya Sabha twice from 2002 to 2008 and then from 2008 to 2014. He retired from Rajya Sabha at age of 93 in year 2014. He died on 22 Aug 2017 at age of 96 years.
• Youngest member ever served as member of  parliament is Dushyant Chautala.
• First female speaker in Indian Parliament was Meira Kumar.
• The first hour of every session of either of the houses is called as question hour. During question hour, the members of parliament can ask questions in relation with government policies, general administration etc. The members from the ruling party have to give oral answer to the starred questions. They have to clear the government’s position in relation to the topic.
• The time slot just after question hour is called as Zero Hour. The members with prior approval of Speaker can raise and discuss different issues related to public, social and in general matters of national importance.
• In general there are three sessions of the Parliament :- i) Budget session, ii) Monsoon session, iii) Winter session. Budget session is between February to March; Monsoon session is between July to September; winter session is between November to December. Monsoon session is the longest session while winter is the shortest.