UP Vidhan Sabha will go digital from this budget session beginning here from Friday. UP is the third state after Himanchal Pradesh and Rajasthan to go online. The ultimate aim is to make the entire functioning of the state assembly paperless where the agenda of the house will be available online and also the answers to the questions tabled by the MlAs. The present assembly is the 16th assembly since 1952 and it will be the last budget session of this assembly.
Besides the digitalization of the proceedings of the state assembly, the proceedings of the assembly from 1952 till date will soon be available on the website and also the all the bills passed by the legislature since its inception in 1952 after the enactment of the Representation of the peoples act 1952. The new measures were to be implemented from the winter session but the government decided to skip this session. The facility of tabling off line question for the MlAs will however continue.
“For the online questions by the MlAs the assembly secretariat has obtained the digital signature of the members. later the signature will be replaced by one time password to be issued to all the members and they could access the site for loading their question and also viewing the answers’’, said the principal secretary assembly Pradeep Kumar dubey.
Besides the 20 year old sound system, new system of electronic voting has been installed on each desk of the members of the assembly. The new voting system has eliminated the need for lobby division during the voting on important bills and resolution in the assembly. The present sound system replacing the big mikes was installed in 1995 after the worst ever violence inside the house in December 1993, during the Samajwadi party 0Bahujan Samaj Party coalition government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav. The treasury benches and 176 strong opposition led by the BJP had clashed in the house during the day the coalition government was seeking trust vote from the house. Mikes were freely exchanged and several members of the BJP and the both the ruling parties were injured in the incident.
“The programme for the digitalization of the proceedings of the state assembly is being implemented in two phase. In the first phase the proceedings from 1980 till date will be put on the web site followed by 1952 to 1980. The scanning of records of the proceedings is likely to be completed by June this year. The answers to the questions will also be put on the website as soon as the question hour is over’’, said Pradeep Kumar Dube. “However the MlAs may have to wait for the answer to the supplementary questions tabled by the members as that will be included in the daily proceedings –copies of which are daily sent to each member and are finalized after receiving their comments and corrections and that will be uploaded on the site after 15 days’’, said Dube. He added that the library of the state assembly will also be digitalized.
“The upper house of the state legislature the legislative council is also the part of the project and the proceedings of the council from 1920 to 1952 will also be put on the website. Proceedigs of Many years before the independence are handwritten’’, said Pradeep Kumar Dube adding `` a photo gallery in chronological order depicting the legislative history of the state is also proposed to be developed within the premises of the state legislature.
From this budget session the state governor Ram Naik will get a new protocol when he arrives in the state assembly on Monday for addressing the first day of the session which is the joint session of the state legislature. The national anthem will be played before and after the governor completes the address. Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav along with the Speaker of the state assembly and pro tem chairman of the legislative council and principal secretary of the both the houses will receive the Governor. After the address chief minister, Speaker of the assembly and pro tem chairman will formally see off the governor.