“AAP Govt fails to implement NeVA, even after lapse of four-and-half years”: Delhi LG Saxena

New Delhi [India], July 20 (ANI): In a move that could further escalate the fight between Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, LG has accused the AAP government in the national capital of being failed to implement National E-Vidhan Application (NeVA) which aims at making the digitization of Legislative Assemblies across the country.

Claiming that Delhi Legislative Assembly remains the only House in the country which has not initiated the digitization process so far, Saxena said that even eight years after the rollout of the ambitious NeVA in 2015, the government failed to implement it.
Saxena further said that the Secretary of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs has written to the LG Secretariat, urging for intervention into the matter and ensuring implementation of the project using the funds already available under the project NeVA.

“Despite 100 per cent funding being provided by the Central Government for the project, the AAP Government in Delhi, in 2019, refused to accept the Central Government’s financial and technical assistance for the project and instead, chose to develop the application on its own, at an estimated cost of Rs 20 crore. However, the project is yet to see the light of the day despite a lapse of more than four-and-half years,” a statement by the LG office said quoting Saxena.

The LG Secretariat further said that it has forwarded the request to the Principal Secretary of Law, Justice and Legislative Affairs, Delhi for appropriate action in the matter.

It is noteworthy that all 37 Legislative Assemblies and Councils in the country, except Delhi Legislative Assembly, have already implemented or initiated the process for digitalization of the House.

Earlier, the Secretary of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs had written to Delhi Chief Secretary in February this year, asking the government of Delhi to adopt Project NeVA.

“The Government of India is providing 100 per cent funding for the Union Territory of Delhi for implementation of NeVA, for digitalization of Vidhan Sabha, for maintenance, upgradation, customization of the application, capacity building, Cloud deployment charges and charges for security audit for life,” read the letter written to the Chief Secretary, adding that since NeVA is a process based application, the recurring cost of running the Assembly would be the bare minimum and the entire saving will accrue to the government of Delhi, for spending and for convenience of the Legislators and the general public.

It may be noted that in January 2019, Delhi Assembly had decided to “opt-out” of Project NeVA saying it would develop the eViddhan project from its own budget, which was estimated at Rs 20 crore.

The statement further said that in his communication to Delhi Law Minister Kailash Gahlot on May 13 in 2020, Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel acknowledged an “added urgent need to digitize and adopt electronic means of communication besides the various other advantages of the paperless legislature.

“However, the Delhi Assembly and the Delhi Government have kept sitting over the project since 2019,” the LG said. NeVA is one of the 44 mission mode projects under the Digital India Programme of the Union government seeking to make the functioning of all state legislatures paperless by transforming them into “Digital House”.

As per the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry, National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) is a Unicode-compliant software developed to make all legislative body work and data available online for usage by both citizens and Assembly members. NeVA also includes a website and a mobile app.

This software allows for simple access to many documents such as the list of questions, list of businesses, and reports, among others. NeVA also embodies the concept of ‘One Nation, One Application’ with the objective of Cloud First and Mobile First to serve Members FIRST.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed a ‘One Nation, One Legislative Platform’ in November 2021.