Shillong, Feb 7: In yet another notable move towards achieving a paperless Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma will digitally present the Budget Estimates for the financial year 2024-25 during the upcoming Budget Session. This marks the inaugural occasion of the Budget Presentation being conducted in a paperless manner.
The Budget Speech will be made available at the National eVidhan Application website: https://neva.gov.in/Home/NeVA and at the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly website: https://megassembly.gov.in/.
Members of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly will be able to access the speech through the tablets provided in the House.
Officials of the IT Cell of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Secretariat, led by Computer Programmer Dapborlang Marwein, on Wednesday provided training to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on the use of the National eVidhan Application.
Dr. Andrew Simons, Commissioner & Secretary of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Secretariat, conveyed that this measure aligns with the objective of transitioning the Assembly proceedings to a paperless format.
He also informed that several innovations are being initiated towards the goal of making the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly fully paperless.
Starting this Session, hard copies of the list of business, questions, motions, resolutions, etc., will be limited and the documents will be uploaded in the NeVA website and the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly website.
Legislators will also be provided the option of submitting their questions and other notices through the application, as the app hosts a secure page for each Member of the House.
Paperless or eBudgets
It was Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman who presented the 1st paperless budget on February 1, 2021, by reading the budget from a digital tablet that was wrapped in a tradition ‘bahi-khata’ style pouch. The move was also in consonance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Digital India mission as well as to break away from a colonial legacy.
Similarly, among the states of India, Uttar Pradesh became the first state to present a paperless budget on February 22, 2021 by UP Finance Minister Suresh Khanna.
Meghalaya joins the ranks of select few states going paperless in Legislative Assembly, with CM Conrad Sangma set to become the 1st Chief Minister to present a paperless budget.
Also Read: Meghalaya CM lauds EKH DC for donating her land to help decongest Shillong city
Also Watch
