Bengaluru: In a bid to make both the Legislative Assembly and the Council paperless, a Rs 66 crore project has been submitted to the state finance department seeking approval.
Once implemented, this is going to save crores of rupees for the government-the amount spent on the printing of questions asked by members of both the Upper and the Lower House.
The project envisages fixing a desktop in front of the chair of every member to provide all information online. A separate server would be operated to provide uninterrupted service to all members.
Already, the computer wing of Vidhana Soudha has prepared a detailed project report and it has estimated Rs 66 crore for this work. This facility would be provided not only at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru but also at Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi.
An officer pleading anonymity told Deccan Chronicle that the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Delhi has asked Karnataka state to go for a paperless Legislative Assembly and Council.
Instead of sending the proposal to the state legislative assembly secretariat, the Ministry has written to the chief secretary who has reportedly kept the secretariat in the dark. He has gone one step ahead by getting another project proposal ready by a different agency.
“The chief secretary has no business to do this without bringing it to the notice of the presiding officers of both Houses. This has been brought to the notice of the chairman Of the Legislative council, Mr D.H. Shankarmurthy,” the source said, adding, “We are planning to implement it as we do not want to lose funds released by the union government".
The sources said the estimated Rs 66 crore was only for providing desktops to each member. After installation,training would be imparted to all members in operating desktops. In fact, they had submitted this proposal to the government seeking inclusion in the 2016-2017 state budget but it did not happen due to some reason.
"We are optimistic of inclusion at least in the next budget", sources said.
When contacted, Mr Murthy, Secretary, State Legislative Assembly said the proposal has been submitted to the finance department.
There are a lot of advantages in making the Assembly and the Council paperless as everything would be done online, he said. Interestingly, the cost involved in providing printed questions to each member is in the range of Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000!
