Speaker Ram Niwas Goel has directed the General Purpose Committee to submit its report within a month to make the Delhi legislative Assembly paperless e-Vidhan Sabha. Raising the matter on Monday during calling attention motion, AAP MlA and former Delhi law Minister Somnath Bharati also demanded that MlAs be provided Assembly papers only in one language as per their choice. At present, Assembly papers were provided in English, Hindi and Urdu to all the MlAs.

Quoting international studies, Bharati said pulp mills were contributing in a big way to water and air pollution as paper industries produce 100 million tonnes of toxic waste every year. Pointing out that 35 per cent of the harvested trees were used for paper production, Bharati said, “When the Budget was presented in the House, we got the same document in English, Hindi and Urdu. But each MlA chose to look into the copy of the document in his prefered language. The rest of the documents supplied were a sheer wastage of money.”

Taking a cognizance of Bharati’s suggestion, Goel has directed General Purposes Committee to submit a report within a month to make Delhi Assembly paperless e-Assembly on the lines of other Assemblies in the country. Karnataka, Himachal and Kerala Assemblies have turned fully paperless and their Assembly Secretariats are fully computerised.

Bharati is currently chairman of the General Purposes Committee of the Assembly.

The former law Minister also demanded that all MlAs be provided their documents on their I-pads or smart phones. “The average age of the MlAs is 40. We should also gradually move towards e-Vidhan Sabha. We can easily store all the documents on google drive.”

The BJP also backed Somnath’s motion. leader of the Opposition Vijender Gupta said his party backed the proposal for making Vidhan Sabha totally paperless and introducing e-mechanism to carry out its proceedings. “We have no objection to go on-line.”