The Himachal Pradesh cabinet has gone completely paperless after the government launched its E-cabinet on Friday. Right from conducting cabinet meetings to issuing memos, the state’s council of ministers will henceforth, rely completely on technology.
Interestingly, this is not the first time, the Himachal government has shunned paper. In 2014, the Himachal Pradesh state Assembly went completely digital. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, who also held the finance portfolio, presented the 2020-21 state budget through digital means, one year before Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman did the same on February 1.
“It’s a new beginning aimed at increasing the efficiency of the state cabinet by removing obstacles that usually arise due to the physical movement of cabinet memos. This new initiative will also bring an added layer of security and confidentiality to cabinet proceedings,” said CM Jai Ram Thakur soon after he convened a meeting of the first digital cabinet.
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The entire process right from the initiation of a cabinet memo, its approval from the concerned secretary, chief secretary, ministers and the CM, has become completely online now, said Divesh Kumar, Secretary, General Administration (GAD). From now on the date of cabinet meetings will also be notified virtually, he added.
The IT application for e-cabinet was developed in-house by the Department of Information Technology (IT) and is one of the first such electronic platforms in the entire country.
About 32 cabinet memos were discussed and processed through this application on the first day, said Divesh Kumar.
The e-cabinet also provides for generation of automatic alerts through SMSes on real time basis for various stages involved in processing cabinet issues like receipt of cabinet memos and the finalisation of cabinet meetings.
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The E-cabinet application will also help in removing information asymmetries, officials said adding that the E-cabinet application is available as a mobile app on android devices and will be made available on iOS devices soon.
However, since the security of the application could not be compromised, only specific users will be able to access it and automatic alerts will be generated if any unauthorised user tries to log in.
Furthermore, all cabinet memos generated through this application will have special QR code with a date and time stamp.
“It will also be possible to monitor the status of implementation of cabinet decisions more effectively through this application” said Chief Secretary Anil Khachi.
Interestingly, when the e-Vidhan system was introduced in the state, even the then chief minister, 86-year-old Virbhadra Singh and his senior-most cabinet minister Vidya Stokes, (86), the then Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal (76), and Speaker B B Butail (79), started using touch-screen devices at their tables in the Assembly.
Gradually more states are likely to follow suit as reports say Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has also taken a decision to adopt the E-cabinet system.
