ગુજરાતી
English
Dilip Patel
Ahmedabad, 29 August 2023
The Gujarat Legislative Assembly will go completely paperless before the monsoon session in 2023 under the E-Vidhan Application-Neva project. Training is being given to the legislators. The monsoon session of the Vidhansabha to be held from September 13 will be completely paperless. Gujarat Vidhansabha has become paperless. In this series, the training of National e-Vidhan Application-NEVA has started. Digital House – Members will use electronic devices to participate in the proceedings of the House.
The monsoon session of the Vidhansabha will be conducted through the National e-Vidhan Application. All the MLAs of the state will do technology based work with the help of tablets. Legislators will be able to have all the information at their fingertips by including all matters related to legislative functioning in this application.
Not live
Will not show the assembly live. The CCTV installed in the lobby has also been switched off. Earlier journalists were allowed to take live footage, that too has been snatched away. The people of Gujarat have been repeatedly demanding that the proceedings of the Gujarat Assembly be shown live. But, the BJP government of Gujarat is not ready to take live action since 25 years. The rights that the people had, have also been snatched away. Journalists or members of the public with cameras are not allowed inside the assembly premises.
Use of AI in NeVA
NeVA is bringing coordination, transparency and accountability not only between the legislature and the executive in the state, but across the state. Improvement will also be brought in the functioning of all areas. Improvements will also be made for important needs like digital library, gallery, e-voting area, grievance redressal center. The Center has spent 60 percent and the Gujarat government has spent 40 percent. An estimated project of Rs 13 to 16 crore has been approved for e-Vidhan Sabha.
NeVA has made maximum use of AI and IOT.
Password
Tablets have been placed on the tables of all the MLAs in the assembly instead of paper. There are wireless devices on the table. Legislators will work online in the House. No paper will be given to the MLAs and everything will be managed digitally. Also, all questions, bills, order of the day and all proceedings will be paperless, while tablets will be placed on the seating arrangements of all legislators. In which a secure I.D. And the password will be given to the MLAs. So that there is no chaos of any kind.
All papers
A question is given in the assembly by writing it on a paper. The new bill and the paper to be placed on the table will be available on the online tablet only. If all the MLAs of Gujarat want to ask something from the government through the paperless model, then they will have to send it through the application itself. No correspondence will be required. Any file will be kept online through the tablet. In this way, MLAs will be able to receive their constituency questions online, while 116 notices, correspondence with the chairman can also be done through tablets. All documents will be received digitally.
Live VOT
Anyone can give their vote and their presence on the proposal in the house through the application. The general public will be able to keep a live watch on the conduct of their elected representatives in the house. For this, tablets have been installed on all the seats of the assembly. Information about the behavior of people’s representatives in the assembly and the questions raised by them, their answers and government schemes can also be found.
Initiative of Trivedi and Nitin Patel
Paperless budget in Gujarat was started by the former Finance Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of the state, Nitin Patel. Former Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi has expressed his desire to make the Assembly paperless. Since then, preparations were on to make the Gujarat Assembly a paperless assembly. National e-Vidhan App by the Government of India to digitize the Legislatures of the country. NeVA has prepared One Nation, One Application. Parliamentary Affairs Secretary, Government of India. Srinivas had a meeting. In which the NeVA project was announced. NIC officials visited. The Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat awarded the contract to a software and application development company. A committee of 15 members was formed for the e-assembly.
80 lakh tonnes of paper will be saved
By implementing paperless budget, 14 lakh tonnes of paper was saved. A total of 80 lakh tonnes of sin can be saved. So much paper is used. Some documents that are required to be placed in the public media will be printed and distributed. However in the best case the goal would be to reduce the printing paper. If possible a digital copy of the publicly held paper will also be provided. Thousands of documents have been uploaded on the portal. A report requires 30,000 papers. Documents can also be carried in soft copy and hard copy in the Vidhansabha.
Paperless system could not be done in the Lok Sabha also.
Gujarat not MoU
There was no interference of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs in the legislatures. For this, 18 states had signed MoUs. But Gujarat did not sign the MoU. Money has been given to the Legislature for this. The Gujarat Legislative Assembly has digitized lakhs of pages of records. But till date it has not been used. For which huge expenditure has been made.
Nagaland
With such arrangement the Nagaland Assembly was paperless. The north-eastern state of Nagaland has on 20 March 2022 become the first state in the country to implement the National e-Legislation Application (NEVA) program completely paperless. Created history by becoming. Tablets or e-books have been placed on every table in the assembly of 60 MLAs.
Bihar
In a special achievement, the Bihar Legislative Council became the first house in the country to completely migrate to the NeVA platform on November 25, 2021.
Winter Session, 2021 conducted in paperless mode on Neva platform. He moderated the Budget Session, 2022 on NeVAplatform.
Odisha
Odisha Legislative Assembly also presented its Budget 2021 in paperless mode using NeVA.
Uttar Pradesh
On 23 May 2022, the country’s largest 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly became paperless. Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly is working under e-bidding. The budget session of the Vidhan Sabha was completely hi-tech. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla started it. The proceedings of the Vidhan Sabha can be viewed online through the e-Vidhan app.
What is Neva?
NeVA is a Unicode compatible software which provides easy access to various documents such as list of questions, business list, reports etc. bilingually. In which English and any regional language. This app is cloud first and mobile first to provide first class service to the members.
NeVA aims to create a digital repository of entire heritage data and make it accessible to members and citizens in an easily searchable mode through mobile apps and websites.
All government business including exchange of information in digital mode with state government departments can be transacted on digital platforms. It aims to bring about far reaching changes in governance across the country by making people well informed and enlightened. Citizens in the country and thus the roots of democracy are getting stronger.
The functioning of all the Legislative Assemblies of the country is the same. Enabling provisions have been incorporated in NEVA to enable compliance by both the Houses of Parliament.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with 18 states for adoption of National e-Vidhan Application (NEVA). A detailed project report was submitted by 13 out of 18 states. (1) Punjab (2) Odisha, (3) Bihar (Both Houses), (4) Nagaland, (5) Manipur, (6) Sikkim, (7) Tamil Nadu, (8) Meghalaya, (9) Haryana, (10) ) Tripura (11) Uttar Pradesh (Both Houses), (12) Mizoram, (13) Arunachal Pradesh.
Citizens will join
In future this application will expand its reach and engage citizens. In which the works and questions of the public will be solved digitally quickly.
The Government of Gujarat launched the e-Government App on 31 November 2021. Then other states were able to start e-legislature. (Translated from Gujarati, from these website)
