Delhi MLAs to get tablets as Assembly plans to go paperless

As per the plan, senior officials in the Assembly said, legislators will be provided with tablets so that they are informed about House proceedings in advance. MLAs can also find out whether or not their question to be asked asked during Session was been chosen or not, even if they are not present.

The Delhi Assembly is likely to go “paperless” over the next four months under a project in which all MLAs will be provided with tablets to stay updated about proceedings even if they are not present in the House on a given day, Delhi Assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel said on Sunday. When present in the House, Goel said MLAs will be able to see the list of business, read questions and access documents pertaining to proceedings on screens which will be attached to their seats, said Goel.

The Delhi Assembly is likely to go “paperless” over the next four months under a project in which all MLAs will be provided with tablets to stay updated about proceedings even if they are not present in the House on a given day (Mint)

He added, “In another two months we will start organising workshops to make Vidhan Sabha staff familiar with the paperless process.”

With this, Delhi will join Himachal Pradesh and Kerala in the e-Vidhan Sabha league. The Delhi government has sanctioned ₹20 crore in the 2019-20 budget to fund the project after the Assembly Secretariat opted out of the Centre’s NeVA (National e-Vidhan Application), for all legislatures, in January this year, Goel said.

As per the plan, senior officials in the Assembly said, legislators will be provided with tablets so that they are informed about House proceedings in advance. MLAs can also find out whether or not their question to be asked asked during Session was been chosen or not, even if they are not present.

The National e-Vidhan Sabha application was formulated by the Centre in 2013 and the move to turn all state assemblies paperless was expected to save more than 6,000 trees and expenses up to around ₹15 crore, senior officials said. They further said, under the actual proposal, the project was to be funded by the Centre.

In Delhi’s case, the city government is funding it because they did not agree with the Centre’s conditions on audit of the project, Goel said.

The Assembly’s technical advisory committee has approved the proposal, which has been sent to the finance department of the Delhi government for further procedure. The official said that National Informatics Centre (NIC) is providing technical support to the Assembly Secretariat in executing the project, the officials said.