NAGPUR: The
Maharashtra government plans for a
paperless budget seems to have hit a roadblock again. A proposal was floated about two years ago that instead of handing over briefcase full of budget documents to each of the around 350 legislators on the budget presentation day, a soft copy on a tablet or pen drive would save paper and printing costs.
An all-party committee of legislators headed by state finance minister
Sudhir Mugantiwar was set up through a government resolution published on September 17, 2016, to study the proposal and examine the costs involved and other modalities. The term of the committee expired in December 2017, yet it failed to come out with viable solutions.
The committee had its last meeting in September 2017, where it was decided that it would need more time to evaluate the proposal and see if such a model was being used in any other state, and how it was faring. Saving reams of paper and printing ink was the motive that drove the plan. At least the proposal has not been rejected.
But a government resolution released on January 19 has extended the term of the all-party legislators committee to March 31, 2019, as it is yet to complete the consultation process. Thus, it is clear that the next state budget to be presented in March will continue in the old style, and scores of trees will be sacrificed for the reams of papers on which the proposals will be printed. These will then be packed in briefcases and given to legislators.
Asked if the cost factor was coming in the way of implementing the plan,
Mugantiwar told ToI on Monday that as per initial studies the digital dissemination would be much cheaper than the hard copies. "We are sure once all loose ends are tied and requite clearance from estimates committee is obtained, we will switch over to the modern method. Right now, we are not fully ready," the finance minister said.
Leader of opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, former CM Prithviraj Chavan, former Speaker
Dilip Walse-Patil, ex-finance minister
Jayant Patil, minister of state for finance Deepak Kesarkar, Atul Bhatkhalkar, Rajendra Patne, Sangita Thombre, Sanjay Kute, Sunil Prabhu, Prakash Ambitkar along with secretaries of the departments concerned are members of the all-party committee.
(Representative Image)
