Chandigarh, April 10: Foreign Cooperation Department of Haryana launched a new initiative of the bilateral talks and exchanges the ideas with their best practices in Haryana-Saskatchewan. Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker, Sh. Gian Chand Gupta said that the State Legislative Assembly has been made completely paperless by successful implementation of the NeVA (National e-Vidhan Application). This initiative will not only expedite the procedure but also brings transparency in legislative assembly proceedings.
Sh. Gian Chand Gupta said this while exchanging various initiatives and functioning of Haryana Legislative Assembly with foreign delegations during Haryana-Saskatchewan Legislative Exchange-2023 programme here today. Foreign delegations led by Speaker of Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly, Mr. Randy Weekes, Deputy Speaker, Sh. Ranbir Gangwa, Haryana MLA’s of opposition and Principal Secretary, Foreign Cooperation Department, Sh. Anurag Agarwal and Advisor to Chief Minister for Foreign Cooperation Department, Sh. Pawan Kumar Choudhary were also present.
98 percent paper saved due to paperless E-Vidhan Sabha
The Vidhan Sabha Speaker further said that digitization is the biggest need of today’s era. With the initiative of e-Vidhan Sabha, the proceedings of the House, including agenda notices, bulletins, bills, starred and unstarred questions and their answers, documents to be laid on the table, reports of various committees, etc. have been performed effectively without the use of paper. In the direction of environmental protection, this project plays an important role as up to 98 percent of paper has been saved due to the proceedings under the Neva, he added.
Duration increased in sittings
Sh. Gian Chand Gupta further apprised the delegations that the Rules Committee of the Legislative Assembly has increased the duration of sittings by one and a half hour to 6 hours from the monsoon session 2022. Now during the sessions , the proceedings will be held from 11 am to 6 pm.
Legislators Orientation Programme
The Vidhan Sabha Speaker apprised that on March 6, 2023, a training workshop was organized by the Haryana Legislative Assembly to study the demands for budget grants and prepare reports on them in which 25 Legislators from different parties took part. This training was given by the team of ‘Parliamentary Democracy Research and Training Institute’ (PRIDE) on behalf of Lok Sabha. A provision has been made to give the best award to the Legislators once in a year. An all-party committee selects the best legislator on the basis of certain parameters, he added.
Introduced Zero Hour in Proceedings
Sh. Gian Chand Gupta said that Haryana Legislative Assembly has started Zero Hour on all days which was the first time in the history of the State, when Zero Hour became a part of the Agenda. The Legislative Assembly has done another unique experiment in which the process of asking three questions in a month by each Member has been started besides the duration of the session.
During the budget session, on March 8, 2021, on the occasion of Women’s Day, the proceedings of the House were handed over to 5 women legislators. This innovative experiment was done to empower women in the state, he added.
Live Telecast of Vidhan Sabha proceedings
Sh. Gian Chand Gupta further said that with live telecast of proceedings, the legislators will concentrate on their legislative work and will take more interest in the legislative work. By this initiative, the public will also know that their representatives are keeping the matter in the house or not. In this regard the proceedings of Haryana Legislative Assembly have been made available for satellite based TV channels, he added.
Haryana emerged as economic powerhouse
Extending warm welcome to foreign delegation, Principal Secretary, Foreign Cooperation, Sh. Anurag Agarwal said that besides being an agrarian state, Haryana has emerged as an economic powerhouse, a hub of automobile manufacturing activity, and a cynosure of all investing eyes, both domestic and foreign besides a leading contributor to the nation’s food pool. Haryana government led by a visionary leadership Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal not only hand-holds industry but also sprinkles the industrial soil with the fertilizer of fiscal and financial incentives and care, to ensure that the seeds of industry germinate and blossom, he added.
Saskatchewan delegations assured security and cooperation to international Indian students. Foreign Cooperation Department Haryana and Saskatchewan already have an Memorandum of INTENT for mutual cooperation. It is known that the Foreign cooperation department have coordinated the INTERNATIONAL GITA JAYANTI MAHOTSAV very successfully in CANADA.
While exchanging the procedure and functioning of Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly, the Speaker, Mr. Randy Weekes assured security and cooperation to international students of India pursuing studies in Saskatchewan. He said that the government of Saskatchewan will explore possibilities of creating skilled jobs for the students of India. He said that Saskatchewan holds a ballot paper voting system for elections of legislatures or government in several jurisdictions.
