Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana felicitated first time MLAs for their enthusiastic response in acquiring new skills by participating in digitised proceedings of the assembly through E-Vidhan.
The two-day orientation programme for first-time MLAs concluded in Lucknow on Saturday.
"Every MLA participating in the orientation programme has been very inquisitive and eager to learn the digitised process of proceedings of the assembly through E-Vidhan. The training will continue and it will be held in two sessions from Monday,” the speaker said while speaking to media persons at the conclusion of the orientation programme.
The first session of the 18th UP Assembly is commencing on Monday. The speaker asserted that the House would fulfill the aspirations of people from the first session itself. He said that Uttar Pradesh was the first among bigger states where E-Vidhan had been implemented and this time, every member of the assembly had been assigned a seat and a tablet computer had been provided at their tables.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi floated the concept of E-Vidhan, under which all legislative assemblies in India will come on one platform, become paperless, be linked to one another and in future, their rules will become one,"Mahana said.
"After becoming the speaker I had said that the E-Vidhan system will be implemented from the first session itself. Some said it would be a tough task, but I did not feel so. Today technology is moving fast and now I can say that barring Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh is the first among the bigger states where E-Vidhan has been implemented," he said.
Mahana added that a training programme had been organised for the MLAs since E-Vidhan was being implemented for the first time.
"Our effort will be to ensure that all members learn it. Initially, we will keep it hybrid, meaning both offline and online mode of work will continue as it will take time for everyone to learn the system. One issue cropped up that many MLAs were unaware of it. I said when an old village woman can avail benefits of various government schemes at this age of information technology, why will the MLAs face problems in understanding the system? It may take time for some and for them the hybrid system will be continued. Our endeavour will be to go completely paperless after one or two sessions. This is the beginning of going paperless," Mahana said.
On the seating arrangement in the House, the speaker said, "Seats have been assigned to all members. Till now, there were 379 seats (in the 403-member House) and the rest 24 MLAs used to sit by squeezing themselves. Apart from the 403 MLAs, there were around 15 ministers, who were members of the YP Legislative Council. If these two figures are combined, then the total figure is around 420. At present, the number is 416. Since every member was provided with a tablet and seats were assigned to all of them, 37 new seats were added," said Mahana, an eight-time MLA from Kanpur.
Elaborating on the proceedings of the assembly which will be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, the 61-year-old assembly speaker said, "We will stream the proceedings live on Facebook and YouTube. Voters who elect their MLAs should be aware of the activities of their representatives in the assembly. The members will evince interest in this and a transformed image of Uttar Pradesh will be presented before the country," he said.
"Once the MLAs are aware that people are watching them, a change will come naturally. In the next phase, after 100-per cent digitisation of the assembly, it will be linked to government departments since the issues coming up in the House are related to these departments. Apart from this, I plan to directly seek grievances from the public after consulting the chief minister and efforts will be made to redress those," he said.