Chhattisgarh Assembly moving towards paperless work, says speaker Charandas Mahant

Chhattisgarh Assembly Speaker Dr Charandas Mahant addressed a press conference at the premises of Chhattisgarh Assembly in Raipur on Saturday during which he informed that the state Assembly will be moving towards paperless work.

In this context, the first step has been taken by asking the Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of Chhattisgarh Assembly to file their questions online for the upcoming budget session.

As per the research carried out by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, the online system adopted by the Chhattisgarh Assembly has left a positive impact on the environment, said Mahant.

Notably, the Budget Session of the Chhattisgarh Assembly will commence from March 7.

Out of 1,682 questions, 90 per cent of the questions which were received by the Assembly were filed by the MLAs online.

"Although the online filing of questions is quite new for the MLAs and their staff, they faced difficulties, but the way they filed the questions with tally reaching 90 per cent is really remarkable, and it will help in attaining the future plan of making the Assembly paperless," Mahant said.

IIT Kharagpur’s study on this new online system is an eye-opener. The IIT study revealed that about 4.50 lakh pages (75 GSM, A4 Size) are used in the correspondence through offline mode which means 2.2 tonnes of paper can be saved every year.

Besides, 9.68 tonnes of wood (about 58 trees) can be saved if an online system is adopted, the speaker said. Moreover, around electricity consumed by 73 domestic refrigerators can be saved and with 1 lakh litre of water. Sulfur Dioxide discharged by six 18-wheeler vehicles can be prevented, he added.

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who also holds the Finance portfolio, will table the budget on March 9 at 12.30 pm, the speaker said.

The Budget Session of the Chhattisgarh Assembly starts from March 7 and will have 13 sittings. The session will start with the address of Governor Anusuiya Uikey at 11 am on March 7. General discussion on income and expenditure will be held on March 10 followed by a discussion on the Budget from March 11 to 23.

This time 1682 questions comprised 854 starred questions and 828 unstarred.

Meanwhile, 114 Call Attention proposals, 10 Adjournment Motion, 16 proposals for Zero Hour,4 proposals on public interest were received.