Wednesday, February 23 2005 21:42 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Moved by the human tragedy unleashed by the tsunami, Parliament is considering "adopting" children orphaned by the disaster of December 26 last.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today (Feb 23, 2005) said discussions were on among top leaders of political parties and Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who is also Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, and himself, to operationalise the scheme.

"We are discussing it. If we can do it, it will definitely be very helpful," he said.

The scheme, which will be funded by a trust fund to be set up through contributions by MPs, is expected to benefit thousands of children in the tsunami-hit areas.

All needs of the "adopted" children from food, lodging, clothing to education would be provided using funds from the corpus, which will run into crores of rupees.

The trust fund is likely to be headed by a senior MP who will monitor its activities.