Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has defended the construction of a new Parliament building as part of the Central Vista project and said the 100-year-old building is unsafe and not appropriate for several functions of the House.

“It’s not a matter of the government’s ego. Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha had requested the government that the current building, which is historic and unparalleled in the world, is now 100 years old and is not earthquake-safe,” Om Birla told India Today TV.