Legislative Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather has called High Level Apex Committee (HLAC) meeting in Srinagar on July 23 with a target to make the House paperless by next budget session which is generally held in March.
Headed by the Speaker, the HLAC has three members from ruling National Conference, two from BJP and one each from Congress and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) besides senior Government officers.
Rather told the Excelsior that they have the target of implementation of NeVA project to make Legislative Assembly work paperless by next budget session of the House in March 2026.
“The HLAC meeting will take all aspects into account on how to proceed ahead in implementation of the project,” he said, adding the project has been implemented in Parliament and many States and they are confident that it will be operational in Jammu and Kashmir Assembly within the next few months.
Under the project, the Assembly work will go paperless with everything digitalized.
The HLAC whose meeting has been convened at 12 noon on July 23 in Srinagar comprised Hasnain Masoodi, Tanvir Sadiq and Arjun Singh Raju, all from National Conference, Nizam-ud-Din Bhat of Congress, Waheed-ur-Rehman Para, PDP; Dr Sunil Bhardwaj and Dr Bharat Bhushan, both from BJP.
Secretary to Government Information Technology Department is Member of the HLAC while Secretary Legislative Assembly is the Member Secretary.
Besides members of the HLAC, the Speaker has also called five officers to the meeting including Additional Chief Secretary/ Administrative Secretary Estates Department, Principal Secretary to Government, Finance Department, Secretary to Government, Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Managing Director, National Informatics Centre Services Incl (NICSI) New Delhi along with representative of NICSI at UT level and State Informatics Officer (SIO), NIC Jammu and Kashmir.
Sources said the Union Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs is also assisting in implementation of the project. The Ministry has also given a funding of Rs 15 crore for the project.
Project NeVA is aimed at digitization and making the Legislature paperless. It is part of the Digital India Initiative and is led by the Union Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
Besides the Parliament, several Legislatures across the country have already gone paperless. However, Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly took up the project after it was constituted in the middle of October last year.
Worthwhile to mention here that there was no Legislature from middle of 2018 to September 2024 till Assembly elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir in September-October and first session of the House was held from November 4-8, 2024 following by the budget session from March 3-April 9, 2025.
“Project NeVA is of paramount importance to enable transparent, efficient and technologically advanced legislative process in both the Legislative Assembly complexes at Jammu and Srinagar,” the sources said.
They said that the UT Government as well as Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather are very keen to implement Project NeVA in Jammu and Kashmir Assembly at the earliest.
