Andhra Pradesh Cabinet is set to go paperless with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu deciding to provide iPads to all ministers.
The tech-savvy chief minister, who had introduced e-Cabinet meetings during his earlier term, has decided to revive the system.
During a previous Cabinet meeting, CM Naidu had told ministers that from henceforth the Cabinet meetings would be paperless.
Naidu introduced the concept of e-Cabinet meetings in 2014, about 100 days after assuming office as the first chief minister of bifurcated Andhra Pradesh.
Later, the YSR Congress Party government discontinued the system of e-meetings.
Now two months after returning as the chief minister following the landslide victory of TDP-led NDA, the 74-year-old has decided to revive the system of e-Cabinet meetings.
For every Cabinet meeting, the officials have to print at least 40 sets of hard copies of notes based on the agenda. With the decision to have paperless meetings, these notes will now be made available in soft format to participating ministers and top officials.
The government believes that the e-Cabinet meetings help save printing costs. This also help in preventing leak of Cabinet notes.
During his earlier term CM Naidu motivated his Cabinet colleagues to use iPads. From the elderly to young, all ministers were seen carrying iPads with e-Cabinet app in their hands instead of bundles of files and papers they used to do earlier.
Naidu had also revealed after the first e-Cabinet meeting that none of the ministers faced any problem in handling the gadgets as they all had easy to operate touch screens.
The minutes of the meeting, too, were electronically recorded.
For the e-Cabinet, a new file-sharing system was put in place using the FileCloud tool.
CM Naidu is known for aggressively promoting use of technology in governance. He had taken several initiatives when he was the chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh for two terms between 1995 and 2004. Naidu was then called ‘CEO of Andhra Pradesh Inc.’. In his fourth term, he is trying hard to keep up with the same image.