Now, Himachal Assembly becomes first to adopt National e-Vidhan Application
Dharamsala (The Uttam Hindu): After India's first paperless e-Vidhan Sabha that helped the state save Rs 15 crore every year, the Himachal Pradesh legislative Assembly on Wednesday became the country’s first National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) under the Central government’s “One Nation, One Application” initiative.
NeVA, a mission mode project for digital legislatures to make the functioning of all legislative Houses in the country paperless. Now all businesses in the Assembly have been transformed digitally, enable the members of the House and the government functionaries to transact entire government business in digital mode, Speaker Kuldeep Pathania announced on the first day of the onset of the winter session of the Assembly in Dharamsala, the winter capital of the state.
He said the state Assembly was the first in the country to go paperless on August 4, 2014, during the stint of Congress veteran and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, now dead. For this, the Speaker gave credit to his predecessor B.B.L. Butail for executing the e-Vidhan Sabha with the Central government’s financial assistance of Rs 8.16 crore. He said with the launch of paperless Assembly, the government will save 10-15 tons of papers annually.
He said through NeVA, for which the Centre sanctioned Rs 8.31 crore in 2023, would bringing far-reaching transformation in the governance by making the people enlighten, strengthening the roots of the democracy. “With the launch of this NeVA, you will be able to watch the proceedings of the Vidhan Sabha at home.” Speaker Pathania said a proposal of Rs 4 crore has been sent to the Centre to convert the Assembly based in Shimla into NeVA. Leader of the House and Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu said the e-Vidhan Sabha system has been running since 2016 and “now we are moving towards the national system. “Today the system being implemented across the country has started in Himachal. By adopting this, people from all over the country will be able to see the proceedings of the Himachal Vidhan Sabha.”
Sukhu said recently the government has completed two years of its tenure. He appreciated the Prime Minister's vision of Digital India. “E-Vidhan Sabha was inaugurated in Shimla, while national NeVA is being launched in Dharamsala.” He thanked his predecessor Jai Ram Thakur for presenting state’s e-budget during his tenure. Leader of Opposition Thakur said the e-Vidhan Sabha has been already running in the state. “Now, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India campaign, the national e-Vidhan system has been implemented for the entire nation.” Talking about its benefits, he said now “one does not have to go to find the papers. Now even the budget is being presented after reading and seeing digitally”. BJP leader Thakur, who then held the finance portfolio, too, said he was the first Chief Minister who laid the e-Budget on March 6, 2020.
