Puducherry assembly will soon become paperless: Speaker Selvam

PUDUCHERRY: The legislative assembly of the Union territory of Puducherry would meet at 9.30 am on Feb 12, said speaker R Selvam on Friday.

Selvam told reporters that the Union govt had granted permission to introduce the National e-Vidhan application (NeVA) -- a national-level project to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy -- in the legislative assembly.

If things crystallised as per the plans, Puducherry would soon become a paperless legislative assembly. He said the Union parliamentary affairs ministry funds the project.

The Union territory earlier submitted a detailed project report to the ministry.

A Kolkata-based private firm has been entrusted with the task of executing the project at a cost of Rs 8.16 crore. Work has been progressing in full swing to equip the House with all necessary infrastructural facilities for conducting its business without using paper. It has reached the final stage.

NeVA is a member-centric, device-neutral, and user-friendly app which aims at equipping all legislators to handle diverse House business smartly by giving them access to the entire information needed by them in their hand-held devices/tablets, creating an efficient, inclusive, zero-emission-based database, overhauling the way the legislatures work. The app provides all relevant information like notices and bulletins issued by the legislature to the members.

Selvam said the legislative assembly would convene again in March for the budget session.