Two days after promising a paperless administration and seamless communication between departments in the 2018–19 civic budget, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Friday presented all its 198 councillors with iPads.
The civic body has spent over ₹71 lakh on the tablets, each of which costs around ₹36,000, said a senior BBMP official. “The expenditure we incur on paper is more than the cost of the Ipads, and increased use of the device will be beneficial in the long run as it cuts costs and makes communication easier,” said M. Mahadeva, chairman, Taxation and Finance Committee.
The BBMP incurs cost of lakhs of rupees every year printing council documents, including subjects placed before the council, government resolutions and orders, as well as notices on meetings. “Now, all of this information will be available on an application being developed by the IT cell, said T. Sheshadri, BBMP IT Cell head. This will be rolled out next week. “Councillors will be able download the app and use it to see all relevant informations on their iPads. They will also be able to keep tabs on the complaints being registered in their wards through the device.”
B.S. Satyanarayana, councillor for ward 154 (Basavanagudi), welcomed the move. “The earlier plan was to give us laptops, but that never came through,” he said.
The IT cell plans to conduct training workshops for councillors in batches of 20, starting next week.
