Paper-pushing’ is one thing you will not be able to accuse Goa’s babus and politicians of, during the forthcoming month-long Monsoon Session, with State Assembly proceedings going paperless.
The nearly month-long Budget Session of the Goa Assembly will see which begins on July 22, is expected see over 2,500 questions, will be 95 per cent paperless according to Speaker Rajendra Arlekar.
“We are proud to say that for the first time in its history, the Goa legislative Assembly is going paperless. Almost 95 per cent of the proceedings will be online... Give us some time, we will go 100 per cent soon,” Speaker Rajendra Arelekar said.
Members of the House and secretaries will access the data on laptops and tablet computers even as Arlekar said that certain websites will be blocked on the Assembly’s internal network.
His statement came in response to a question on whether the incident of Karnataka MlAs watching porn in the assembly was on his mind while deciding to go paperless.
“It is all an endeavor to make it an e-assembly in tune with the times. Nearly half the questions have been sent by the MlAs online, without using paper,” Arlekar said, adding that the legislators had been “extremely co-operative” with the move.
legislators, secretaries and the 50-odd journalists who cover the session, are each allotted bulky bundles of paper, which includes starred questions, unstarred questions, their annexures, bills and the numerous reports and documents which are tabled in the Assembly on any given day. All that, according to Arlekar is set to change.
Former Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, according to the Goa legislative Assembly records, has asked all his questions via the e-module, followed by Aleixo lourenco (Congress), Ganesh Gaokar (BJP), Independent MlA Naresh Sawal.
Out of the 2,511 questions which will be asked during the forthcoming Monsoon Session, 1,118 were posed online, Arlekar said.
Issues like that of the multi-billion dollar mining scam use of police to settle political scores, the lusofonia Games scam and other issues are set to rankle the ruling benches.
Explaining the e-protocol for legislators, Arlekar said that replies to queries from the MlAs would be made available to them 48 hours before the day when the query is scheduled to feature. A special log-in and a two-step verification procedure provides secure access to the assembly's interface for the legislators, where queries can be raised and the responses as well as the annexures can be accessed.
"The data can be accessed by the general public immediately after Question Hour," Arlekar said. The BJP has 21 MlAs in the 40 member House, while the Congress has nine. The assembly session ends on August 21.