‘Technical reasons’ delayed start to e-Assembly during 2018 budget session

Srinagar, Jan 28: Despite distributing I-pads to legislators, state government failed to implement the ‘e-Assembly’ in the ongoing budget session.
The Information Technology had distributed I-pads to MLAs, MLCs, administrative secretaries and other concerned officers to view and download the answers of the questions in a digital format in the budget session.
However, government failed to start the e-Assembly in the ongoing assembly session. The legislators could not use I-pads in absence of e-Assembly.
“I-pads are no use for us without e-Assembly. They could be used in the Assembly only when e-Assembly is implemented here,” a PDP legislator said.
An official of IT Department said that Speaker JK Legislative Assembly, Kavindar Gupta, was informed before the session that the IT Department was ready with question answer management system of the software.
The e-Assembly project could not be started in the ongoing session due to “technical problem”, the official said.
Giving reasons about delay in implementation of the project, he said that “main software for the project was imported from Rajasthan (e-assembly). The customization of the software for inclusion of legislative council module took time, as Rajasthan Assembly is unicameral whereas JK legislative assembly is bicameral.”
He said, “There were some technical problems as a result of which the main software could not integrate the workflow of the houses in the software.”
He said that IT Department had submitted the proposal to Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances for automation of Assembly houses in JK.
“Upon examination of the e-Assembly project, a committee advised that while designing the system, the state should study the system in place in Rajasthan Assembly. After which main software was imported from Rajasthan assembly,” he said.
The e-Assembly project was sanctioned in 2014 with over Rs 3.5 crore.
The project consists of various components like web software application, mobile applications, Wi-Fi in J&K legislative assembly and council, hardware like smart tabs, scanners, digital signatures an UTM (firewall).
The project aimed at making the process chain of the assembly and council related to sessions online, thereby reducing the dependence on paper and speeding up the process.
IT Minister Imran Raza Ansari did not respond to phone calls. However, he had said that e-Assembly project for Jammu and Kashmir has been envisaged for “end to end computerization of the Assembly processes so that paper work can be reduced, time is saved and Assembly members can put their questions in online format and complete digitization of Assembly can be done.”