AP Assembly, Legislative Council to go paperless under NeVA project

Vijayawada: To turn the legislative processes completely digital and paperless, the Legislature of Andhra Pradesh will become part of the National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) administered by the Union Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.

A proposal to this effect was approved recently by Speaker of the AP Legislative Assembly and Chairman of Legislative Council.

As a follow-up, Umang Narula, secretary, and Satya Prakash, additional secretary, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Government of India visited the Andhra Pradesh Legislature on Friday and interacted with the stakeholders.

Speaking at the meeting hosted by Prasanna Kumar Suryadevara, Secretary-General, Andhra Pradesh Legislature, Narula and Satya Prakash elaborated on the key features of the NeVA.

“The Centrally-sponsored NeVA scheme is one of the Mission Mode Projects aimed at transitioning all legislative bodies of the country into a paperless format and unifying them onto a single platform as ‘Digital Legislatures’ under NeVA,” said Umang Narula. Satya Prakash made a presentation on ‘NeVA’ and responded to the queries of officers of the Legislature.

To take this project forward, it was agreed to enter into a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Andhra Pradesh Legislature and the Department of IT, Government of Andhra Pradesh.

Once the detailed project report is finalised based on the template provided by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, the work will begin to digitally enable both the Houses of Andhra Pradesh Legislature.

Simultaneously, training and orientation programmes will be organised for the benefit of legislators, officers and staff of the Legislature and other stakeholders from the executive arm.

The Legislature secretariat will be the executing authority for the project.

Like every other Centrally-sponsored scheme, the ‘NeVA’ provides for a contribution of 60 per cent of project cost from the Centre, said an official release.

The visiting officials from the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs along with Prasanna Kumar Suryadevara, later called on Koyye Moshen Raju, Chairman, Legislative Council.

They also called on Neerabh Kumar Prasad, Chief Secretary, Andhra Pradesh government.