Exclusive TV channels for House proceedings in Maharashtra soon

Principal Secretary (State Legislature) Anant Kalse told The Indian Express that the channels, to be modelled on Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV, would be uplinked from the secretariat building. The Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited, a Government of India enterprise, is providing consultancy to the state secretariat on purchase of spectrum, licensing, establishment of the satellite uplink systems and content creation.

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“The idea is that democratic processes should percolate down to the masses,” said Kalse. “People should know what their elected representatives are doing in the legislature.”

Space for a small studio has been identified within the secretariat complex, and non-session programming is expected to be first launched with a couple of hours’ content daily. While cameras and other equipment for the current live telecast of proceedings on Doordarshan are rented, officials said equipment would be purchased shortly.

Live broadcast of proceedings of the Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad was launched last year on Doordarshan’s local channels.

When the legislature convenes on Monday for the monsoon session, the secretariat will also kick off a series of reforms in keeping with the Digital India initiative. Both Houses will be provided WiFi connectivity, though telephone jammers will continue to operate. Sources said legislators have been urged to use Internet during sessions to access real-time information sent to them from their constituencies via email or other messaging applications.

Sources in the secretariat said a proposal to issue tablet devices to every legislator is under active consideration, on which elected representatives would be able to read and follow the day’s agenda, questions, other notices and more.

Additionally, questions for Question Hour will now be accepted online from legislators, beginning this session. Kalse said that questions would be the first to move to an online process, followed by calling attention notices and other motions. This will allow legislators to send in questions from any location, instead of having to visit Vidhan Bhavan for the purpose.