Mock sitting, members’ training for paperless functioning on the cards

LUCKNOW: With the state cabinet on Tuesday deciding to convene the budget session of the state legislature from May 23, the Uttar Pradesh assembly is taking a number of initiatives to ensure the smooth conduct of House proceedings.

The initiatives coincide with the state legislature getting set to go paperless in Uttar Pradesh. The steps also include a mock assembly sitting a day before commencement of the budget session and training for all the members.

A meeting of leaders of all the political parties has been convened at noon on Wednesday to brief them about the measures being undertaken to pave way for implementation of e-Vidhan that proposes to bring all the legislatures on a common digital platform and make legislatures paperless.

Although both digital and paperless options will be available to members initially, arrangements have been made for the training of members as well. The various changes include an increase in the number of seats in the state assembly from 379 to

415. Implementation of e-Vidhan will mean more use of technology and hence the training of members assumes significance.

“A seva kendra (service centre) has been set up for the purpose of training of members and an orientation programme will also be organised for the new members. We will hold a mock House a day before commencement budget session of the House to ensure smooth conduct,” assembly speaker Satish

Mahana said at Coffee with HT here on Tuesday.

Mahana said e-Vidhan was being implemented to connect all the state assemblies and bring them on a common digital platform.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been speaking about minimum government and maximum governance, he said.

“We can reach out to people with the new system,” he said.

Mahana said with the increase in number of seats from 379 to 415, the assembly would be able to assign a separate seat for every member. He said the members, though free to sit anywhere in the House, will be expected to speak from their assigned seats.

“We have requested all the leaders to provide a seniority list of members. This will enable the assembly secretariat in allocating seats to all the members according to their seniority,” he said.Mahana said efforts were also being made to ensure that maximum number of questions came up for replies during the question hour.

Discussion was also being held about the possibility of making replies available online at the time of opening of the question hour. As of now, the printed replies of all the listed questions are made available to the public only after the end of question hour.

The state government presented a paperless state budget, interim budget and the supplementary budget in the House recently. Asked whether the members have objected to paperless budget or demanded a printed budget, Mahana said there was no protest from any member.