Shimla: Himachal Pradesh has become the first state in the country to hold a paperless assembly, budget and cabinet meetings. Not only this, but a paperless secretariat is also in the pipeline.
The cabinet meeting held on 5th February 2021 was paperless. Last year, Chief Minister Jairam Thakur shunned paper and the state assembly went completely digital. The e-cabinet application is also available as a mobile app on Android devices and soon it will be made available on iOS devices as well.
E-Cabinet introduced in 2014
Himachal is the first state in the country to implement the e-legislation system. On 5th of August 2014, the Legislative Assembly was declared e-Vidhan. Under this system, all information is available on the touch screen system.
There is a touch screen display system in the offices of Chief Minister, ministers & MLAs including at the Media Gallery. All the questions of question hour and the answers given by the concerned ministers can be read on an online touch screen.
The answers are given in the respective language in which the question is asked. Apart from this, details of documents kept on the floor of the House during the proceedings of the day are also present online. The questions asked during the Question Hour for the following days are also recorded.
During the question hour, if an MLA forgets any point related to his question, then he can immediately see all the information on the touch screen. Apart from this, big screens are installed in different places in the house.
The picture of the MLA asking the question is displayed on the touch screen. The time taken by an MLA for speaking in assembly is also noted on the touch screen. The Assembly has wifi facility and the houses of MLAs also have wifi facility.
The other states' assemblies are also taking inspiration from e-Assembly of Himachal. Central government officers have also visited Himachal to review the e-assembly of the state. After the implementation of e-Vidhan, all the work is now paperless. This saves 6096 trees from being cut in a year and saves Rs 15 crore rupees every year.
E-Vidhan process started by Brij Behari Lal Butail
The process for e-Vidhan started during the UPA Government. The then Himachal Assembly Speaker Brij Behari Lal Butail met Information and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal. The Himachal Assembly Speaker requested for approval of the e-Vidhan Project.
Brij Behari Lal Butail assured the UPA government that the project will be implemented within one year. The UPA government gave 8.12 crore rupees for this project. And on August 5th 2014, Himachal Pradesh adopted e-cabinet.
CM Jairam Thakur presented first e-budget
In March 2020, the Himachal Government presented an e-budget. This was the first paperless budget presented in the history of the state. Though CM Jairam Thakur brought a briefcase for the budget he read out the budget from the laptop.
During the press briefing after the budget speech, CM shared the experience of the first paperless budget and said that it was a pleasant experience. At the same time, CM Jairam Thakur announced that the state will soon have e-cabinet meetings.
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First e-Cabinet Meeting held in 2021
On 5 February 2021, e-Cabinet meeting was held under the leadership of CM Jairam Thakur. The entire agenda of the cabinet was online.
Thakur said that the agenda of the meeting will be uploaded online and all decisions will be recorded online.
In the first e-cabinet meeting, 32 agendas were discussed and it was conducted through the e-cabinet application. A provision was made to make all the processes related to the Cabinet memorandum online. This includes permission to keep the memorandum in the cabinet on behalf of the secretaries of all departments, the chief secretary, the minister concerned and the Chief Minister.
After approval, the date of the cabinet meeting will also be notified through the online system. According to CM Jairam Thakur, the work of recording cabinet decisions and issuing the advice of departments will also be done online.
The e-cabinet includes the facility of automatic alerts via SMS, receipt of online cabinet memorandum and finalising the date of the meeting. The advice is also taken from the concerned departments on the cabinet memorandum.
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Measures taken to prevent cyber attack
Preventive measures have been taken to stop the cybercrimes on e-Cabinet application. In this application, only authorised users are allowed to use it on authorized computers. The user is not allowed to take, download or print screenshots of the cabinet memorandum.
Also, if any unauthorized person tries to log in, then an automatic alert will be received. Login can only be done through OTP. All the cabinet memorandum are inserted in this application will have a special QR code with date and time stamp.
E-Cabinet will bring more efficiency in the functioning of the government. The system will have a standard template of the Cabinet memorandum, which will facilitate decision making.
This system will collect data securely and create an institutional memory in the near future. Through this, along with the effective implementation of the decisions of the cabinet, their monitoring will also be easy.
Himachal State will soon have e-Secretariat
The state is mulling to have e-secretariat. For this, a project of 50 crores has been prepared in 2018. The process for this project has been started. Under this project, it is proposed to make all the secretariat files and records online.
The governments of more than ten states of the country have sent their officers here to learn the e-Legislative system from Himachal. The states of North-East, Haryana and Karnataka also want to implement such a system in their states.
