Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday sought members’ suggestions on making the House of the People paperless from next session. He said such a move will help save crores of rupees to the state exchequer and also save a lot of trees.
Exhorting members to go digital, Birla said, ‘If the House gives permission, the Lower House will go fully digital from the next session. Every thing will be loaded on the website’. During the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, Birla said the option for paper version will also be available to members.
He also urged the members to make digital payments in the Central Hall of Parliament while making payments. The Speaker also said lakhs of rupees were being spend on sending papers to homes of members which could be saved. He assured that he will try for improving Wi-Fi connectivity and bring about the change gradually with the consent of members.
Trinamool Congress’ Kalyan Banerjee lauded the suggestion, but, he stressed that Wi-Fi connection should be uninterrupted in Parliament at every point of time. He said the Supreme Court also went paperless but it had to return to the practice of paper system because Wi-Fi was not up to the mark.
The vocal member also said when a person reads from a screen, the matter registering on mind is not equivalent to reading from paper and urged that trial of going digital can be experimented for six months first. BJP member SS Ahluwalia said there is Wi-Fi in Parliament and he has been using iPad already, although the strength of Wi-Fi could be increased.
Jayadev Galla of TDP welcomed the suggestion of Birla and suggested that Artificial Intelligence could be used for translation of several languages simultaneously.
(UNI)
