BENGALURU: If all goes well, legislators in both the Houses will be seen using electronic gadgets during the sessions in future. A beginning is being made towards that end in the coming session. This time, the focus will be on ‘less paper’ to maintain less contact due to the ongoing pandemic. However, electronic gadgets are not allowed. The 10-day session will begin on September 21.
The officials are taking many measures like inserting fibre sheets between two seats, making wearing a mask mandatory and placing hand sanitisers at every corner. And everyone attending the session must have a Covid-19 negative test certificate. Along with that, for the first time, the starred and unstarred questions will be printed in limited numbers.
As per Speaker Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri’s instruction, Secretary to Karnataka Assembly Secretariat M K Vishalakshi has issued an order where she stated that due to the pandemic, everyone must maintain less contact and that 350 copies of starred questions will be printed and given to the legislators. As for unstarred questions, answers will be sent to the mail of the concerned MLAs and only 25 copies will be printed. All the answers will be given in CD format to legislators.
Speaking to TNIE, Kageri said they were planning to hold the assembly session with less paper. This has been a long-pending proposal. “Due to Covid, we are making an attempt to adopt ‘less paper’ proceedings,’’ he said. Sources from the Assembly secretariat said that this is just a beginning. “We are looking to eventually go in for zero paper usage.
There is a proposal to introduce electronic gadgets like iPad for legislators who can check starred or unstarred questions. For this, we need to check the WiFi connection with limited login, where one can check only questions and answers. We also need to give training to our legislators,’’ sources said. Meanwhile, Congress legislators plan to come up with 1,200 questions. It will be challenging for the secretariat staff to keep the answers ready.