State assembly 1st in India to go for online questions
The Maharashtra legislature has become the first in the country to launch an online mechanism for legislators to send questions and move different motions in the house.The government has launched a website, mls.org.in, and has given access to all MLAs and MLCs so that they can send their questions and requests to move different motions like calling attention and half-anhour discussion questions for Vidhan Sabha sessions.The use of the software has begun with the winter session in Nagpur.

“We have become the first state to launch such a service. For now, eight parliamentary devices are available for legislators to use online. Legislators from the innermost parts of the state are accessing the software and using it,“ said Anant Kalse, principal secretary (state legislature).

More than 28% of the questions that have been received by the government for the Nagpur session have come online.

The legislature has recei ved 10,573 questions in all, of which 3,000 were received online. Of the 7,141questions received for the legislative assembly , 1,053 have come through the website. The remaining 3,432 questions have come from MLCs, to be taken up in the legislative council; of them, 208 questions were received online.

“The response has been great considering that it’s only been a month since this website was launched and training was provided to MLAs, MLCs and their per sonal assistants to use the software. We will be allowing offline questions for the budget session in March, after which we are thinking of 100% converting to the online system,“ said Haribhau Bagde, speaker of the legislative assembly .

Officials said the move will help the government reduce expenditure by at least 20% by reducing manpower needed to process physical applications. It will also prove to be environment-friendly as it will help save paper.

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