CHENNAI: In a significant move towards public transparency and digital governance, Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday launched a dedicated web portal that allows public access to Tamil Nadu Assembly debates from 1952 to 2024, records that were previously accessible only to MLAs.
In a post on X, the Chief Minister said, “The documents which were accessible only to the MLAs have now been made available to all at one place.”
The digital repository enables the public, elected representatives, academics and researchers to access crucial legislative documents online. The portal includes digitised debates, laws enacted, welfare schemes introduced, and speeches by key leaders from the Assembly sessions.
“This initiative not only strengthens transparency and e-governance but also preserves our rich legislative history, reinforcing Tamil Nadu’s leadership in digital public infrastructure and people-centric governance,” said IT Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan in a post on X.
The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, which is over 100 years old, has documented all its debates since 1921 in the form of books preserved in the Assembly Library. To make these records easily accessible to the public, the Chief Minister ordered their digitisation on 13 August, 2021.
In the first phase of the project, implemented by the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency, records from 1952 to 2024 have been digitised. The portal offers a bilingual search facility in English and Tamil. Advanced search features allow users to retrieve documents by categories. Audio and video clips of key debates and photographs have also been uploaded.
Assembly Speaker M Appavu, Deputy Speaker K Pitchandi, Leader of the House Duraimurugan, Government Chief Whip K Ramachandran, and senior officials were present at the launch event.