Delhi assembly may go paperless by budget session

In an effort to go hi-tech for operational efficiency apart from contributing to environmental conservation, the Delhi Assembly is aiming to go paperless by the next budget session.

In an effort to go hi-tech for operational efficiency apart from contributing to environmental conservation, the Delhi Assembly is aiming to go paperless by the next budget session.

The technology to go paperless would cost `15 crore over a period of three years. (Arun Sharma/HT File Photo)

Grabbing the opportunity provided by the department of electronics of government of India to adopt the digital mode of functioning in legislatures, officials have decided to approach the department under Union information and technology ministry to completely digitise the operational functioning of Delhi Assembly, officials said.

A team of legislators and officials of Delhi Assembly visited Himachal Pradesh Assembly - the only legislature in the country to have gone paperless - last week to get a first-hand experience of the functioning.

“The committee went through the system which has been implemented in Himachal Assembly. Now we have initiated the process of implementing by the next budget session,” speaker Ram Niwas Goel said.

According to the officials who visited Himachal Assembly, which has 68 members, replicating the system in Delhi, with specific modifications as per local need would not be difficult. Once implemented, the entire operational process in the assembly, ranging from sending notices to legislators to tabling of reports on the table of House by ministers, would go digital, officials said.

“On the hardware side, it would require an interactive display unit that would be installed for all the 70 MLAs. The entire process would go online. For example, the moment a question from the member is taken up in the House it would be displayed on the screen. The moment a minister lays the report, it would appear on the interactive display screen. Even the media gallery would have screens that would display the report,” said an official, who was also a member of the team that visited Shimla.

Officials said the digitisation would also require all the departments of Delhi government to be linked to the central server as they would also have to submit reports online.

As per estimates, the Himachal Assembly is saving 5.08 crore leaf of paper per annum. It saves a revenue of Rs 15 crore and prevents felling of 6,096 trees.

The project would cost Rs 15 crore over a period of three years provided by the Union I&T ministry.