India News | Haryana Takes Step Towards Making Functioning of State Assembly Paperless

Chandigarh, Feb 25 (PTI) Haryana has taken a step towards making the functioning of the state Legislative Assembly paperless.

A tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on Thursday between the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, the state government and the Legislative Assembly for the implementation of the National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA), Speaker Gian Chand Gupta said here.

"Himachal Pradesh has become fully e-Vidhan applicable, while 15 other states are making efforts in this direction, including Haryana," he said.

Gupta presided over a meeting with officers of the Centre, the state government and the Assembly here on Thursday.

Deputy Speaker Ranbir Gangwa and Joint Secretary, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Satya Prakash Khatana were present at the meeting, besides members and officials of the House Committee for NeVA and the State Project Monitoring Unit Committee, an official statement said.

Secretary, Personnel, Training, Parliamentary Affairs departments, Pankaj Agarwal on behalf of the Haryana government, Secretary, Vidhan Sabha, R K Nandal on behalf of the state Legislative Assembly and Khatana on behalf of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs signed the MoU, the statement said.

Gupta said the expenses on the project totalling Rs 20 crore would be provided by the Centre and the state government in a 60:40 ratio.

The speaker said he has been making efforts to implement the concept of e-Vidhan Sabha.

"Even during COVID-19, we have been successful in the implementation of the National e-Vidhan Application," he added.

Under the MoU, the Union Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs will organise a three-year training programme for the officials of the state Legislative Assembly and its IT Cell.

"A large amount of paper is used in the Question Hours, calling attention, ordinances, bills and other legislative work during the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly.

"After the implementation of this paperless initiative, an amount of about Rs 15 crore, which was earlier spent on papers, will be saved. It will also help in environmental protection," Gupta said.

He said currently, Himachal Pradesh is the only state that has been successful in fully implementing paperless functioning of the state legislature.

Gupta said on March 1 and 2, a team of officials from the Haryana Assembly would visit Shimla to gather knowledge about the functioning and proceedings of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

The speaker also said the library in the Haryana Assembly will be digitised soon.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)