Dikhyaa Mohanty 
The Andhra Pradesh Legislature will integrate with the Union Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs’ National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) in order to fully digitize and paperless the legislative procedures. The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and the Chairman of the Legislative Council recently adopted a motion to that effect. In follow-up, on Friday the Andhra Pradesh Legislature was visited by Umang Narula, Secretary, and Satya Prakash, Additional Secretary, of the Government of India’s Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, who engaged with the stakeholders.
Speaking at the meeting hosted by Prasanna Kumar Suryadevara, Secretary-General, Andhra Pradesh Legislature, Narula and Satya Prakash elaborated on the key features of the NeVA.
“The Centrally-sponsored NeVA scheme is one of the Mission Mode Projects (MPP) aimed at transitioning all Legislative Bodies of the country into a paperless format and unifying them onto a single platform as ‘Digital Legislatures’ under NeVA,” said Umang Narula. Satya Prakash made a presentation on ‘NeVA’ and responded to the queries of officers of the Legislature. To take this project forward, it was agreed to enter into a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Andhra Pradesh Legislature and the Department of IT, Government of Andhra Pradesh.
The process of digitally enabling both Houses of the Andhra Pradesh Legislature will start as soon as the Detailed Project Report, which follows the format given by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, is completed. Training and orientation programs will be organized concurrently for the benefit of lawmakers, legislative officers, staff, and other executive arm stakeholders. The project’s implementing authority will be the Legislature Secretariat.
According to an official announcement, “NeVA” calls for a 60% project cost commitment from the Center, much like all other Centrally financed programs. Following their visit, Koyye Moshenu Raju, the chairman of the Legislative Council, was visited by the visiting representatives from the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Prasanna Kumar Suryadevara together. They also paid a visit to the chief secretary of the state of Andhra Pradesh, Neerabh Kumar Prasad.
