Karnataka Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Kageri lashes out at government on e-Vidhan project delay

Karnataka Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri, who completed two years in office on Saturday, slammed the state government for the delay in the implementation of e-Vidhan, which he is doggedly pursuing.

First rolled out in Himachal Pradesh in 2014, e-Vidhan enables the automation of the lawmaking process and makes legislature sessions paperless, saving hundreds of trees and public money annually.

“In my two years as Speaker, the one thing that I wanted to do but could not was implementation of e-Vidhan. The government is responsible for this,” Kageri said at a news conference.

The process of rolling out e-Vidhan started in 2014 when a team from Karnataka visited Himachal Pradesh to study the project.

“The legislature has no financial autonomy and has to depend on the government. Since 2014, despite efforts by all the previous Speakers, the e-Vidhan hasn’t become a reality,” he said.

Once the e-Vidhan is rolled out, all key functions of the legislature - questions & notices, replies by the government, laying of reports and bills - will be done virtually through National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) for both web and mobile.

Kageri lamented that smaller states such as Kerala and Himachal Pradesh implemented e-Vidhan. “But Karnataka, where Bengaluru is hailed globally as an IT hub, does not have e-Vidhan, which is painful,” he said.

According to Kageri, the problem lay with the bureaucracy. “Officials should aspire for new innovations in administration that are being adopted globally. They should do away with the British-era routine of sending files back seeking clarification,” he said, citing the non-implementation of e-Vidhan as an example. “I urge the chief minister to take this seriously,” he said, adding that he was hoping for good things to happen going forward.

Kageri was elected as Speaker on July 31, 2019, after the BJP government came to power. “In the last two years, we had five sessions of the legislature for a total of 54 days,” he said. “A total of 98 Bills were tabled and 96 were passed. We have a 94 per cent achievement in terms of the number of questions answered in the House.”

The Speaker is also planning to institute a ‘Best Legislator’ award. “Necessary preparations are on to give the award during the next session. Guidelines are ready for this,” he said.

Kageri said he would work towards making the state legislature the best in the country. “There have been some sour incidents, yes, and whenever limits were crossed I had to take tough decisions. Overall, the Assembly has functioned well,” he said.