Goa's paperless legislative assembly hits roadblock

Inability of legislators in Goa to adapt to a paperless system has forced the legislative assembly to take a step back from the environment-friendly process for the budget session, according to Speaker Rajendra Arlekar.

Arlekar told IANS on the sidelines of an event on Saturday that 741 questions would feature in the five-day budget session which begins on March 23.

"Some MLAs have said that they are finding it difficult to follow the paperless system. So we are streamlining it by letting them take print-outs of the questions and other data which will be tabled in the assembly," Arlekar said.

The functioning of the legislature, especially during assembly sessions sees thousands of sheets of paper used to print the starred and unstarred questions as well as instructions and procedural notes for MLAs, staffers in the house, and journalists covering the proceedings.

In July 2014, during Monsoon session, each of the 40 MLAs were given customized e-tablets to read their questions or peruse through replies given to them by respective ministers, instead of shuffling through printed replies.

Arlekar said the five day budget session would feature as many as 741 questions posed by ruling and opposition MLAs out of which 250 were starred questions.

"The governor will address the assembly on March 23 and the budget will be presented on March 25," Arlekar said.

Laxmikant Parsekar, who replaced Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar as the chief minister in November last year, will present his first budget.