HP's e-vidhan project to be replicated in other states

SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh government's initiative of e-Vidhan project to make the Assembly's everyday proceedings paperless has won accolades from the Centre and it would be replicated in other state assemblies also, Speaker B B L Butail today said.

The pilot project was launched in the Monsoon Session of the Assembly in August this year to make the House paperless. It will be replicated by other state assemblies.

Union Minister for Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad has sent a letter to the Speaker, informing him that the NDA government will convene a national conference of states' IT ministers and secretaries to discuss the model.

The Union IT minister has invited Butial and his technical team to make a presentation at conference of the state IT ministers and secretaries in this regard.

"The aim of the Government of India is to make all the government offices paperless, thus saving trees which in turn will ensure clean environment which is necessary for living healthy life," Prasad wrote in the letter.

Butail said, "This is a great honour for the state, which has successfully implemented Rs 8 crore e-Vidhan project on pilot basis.

He said same system is being installed at Vidhan Sabha complex at Dharamsala where winter session of the assembly would be held next month.

Butail said states like Kerala- where the software used in the e-vidhan project was developed - has asked for details on functioning of Himachal Assembly and recently teams from Karnataka, Kerala and Nagaland visited Shimla to study the new system.

Another team from Arunachal Pradesh is visiting Himachal assembly on November 20 while some other states like UP, Haryana and Punjab have already asked for the project details.

The Speaker said he plans to convene a conference of all speakers of the state assemblies in Shimla to share complete project profile and working of the system and it's impact.