Delhi Assembly tries to go paperless

New Delhi: The Delhi Assembly has asked the government departments to send their replies to questions asked by legislators via email and in a pen drive. The system, which is aimed at promoting paperless transaction, will come into effect when the four-day Monsoon Session of the Assembly begins on August 8.

The Delhi Secretariat said that they should use the PDF format to file their replies to questions asked by MLAs in the Assembly during the Question Hour.

“All principal secretaries, secretaries, and head of departments should send replies via e-mail and in a pen drive. Reply of each question should be given in separate PDF files along with requisite enclosures, if any,” the directive said.

The legislators, however, would continue to get hard copies of replies in the House.

“After receiving the soft copies of replies, the Secretariat will upload them on the Assembly’s website so that people won’t need to file RTI applications for the same,” a government official said.

Earlier, on July 10, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government would put all relevant information online to ensure transparency in its functioning and that there was no repetition of applications.

Mr Kejriwal had launched the government’s e-RTI portal at the Delhi Secretariat here and said that the public, which pays tax, has all the rights to know how its money is being spent.