Delhi Legislative Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel Monday accused Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena of “interfering” in matters of the Vidhan Sabha and took strong exception to a statement from the L-G Secretariat that the capital’s legislature was the only one in the country to not be completely digitised. Goel’s allegations came in the wake of L-G House officials stating that the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs had written to Saxena asking him to ensure that the National E-Vidhan Application (NeVA) was taken up. The project was launched in 2015 for the digitisation of Legislative Assemblies across the country and to make them paperless, According to Raj Niwas, the project had been pending for almost five years and the Delhi Vidhan Sabha was the only one in the country to not have implemented the project. Listing 14 legislatures across the country which were yet to be digitised, Goel, in a statement, alleged that the reason behind the non-implementation of the project was the delay in release of funds meant for it between 2015 and 2018. Goel alleged that the reins of the project were handed to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs in 2018 following which funds were not released to the Delhi Vidhan Sabha despite repeated reminders. He also issued an appeal to the L-G to direct the Principal Secretary (Finance) to allow the Assembly to appoint a management consultant with regard to the project so the process could be completed as soon as possible instead of “politicising it”. L-G House officials last week had said the Delhi Assembly decided to “opt out” of Project NeVA in 2019 saying it would develop the e-Vidhan project from its own budget, which was estimated at Rs 20 crore. They had alleged the Delhi Assembly remained the only House in the country which had not initiated the digitisation process so far, adding that 37 legislatures across the country had accomplished it so far. L-G House officials had alleged that despite 100% funding being provided by the central government for the project, the AAP government in Delhi refused to accept its financial and technical assistance and instead chose to develop the application on its own but the project was yet to see the light of the day.
