Governor of Odisha Shri Ganeshi Lal has claimed that the Odisha government has preserved around 700 big trees by partly shifting over to paperless budgeting in 2019-20 fiscal. “It has reduced the printing of about 57 lakh pages which saved around 700 large trees,” said Lal during his oration to the Assembly before the start of its budget session on Friday. The state government plans to effectively shift to paperless budgeting soon.
To pull this off, a seven-member committee of the Assembly, headed by Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro, visited the Vidhan Sabha of Himachal Pradesh on 22nd August 2019. They wanted to learn about the digital system that fully automates the functioning of the legislative Assembly and minimizes the use of paper through online communication. Patro had earlier stated that the Odisha Assembly would incorporate a digital system like the e-Vidhan used in Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha.
Further, the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) has been processing pension papers of government employees. A single-page salary bill system was also introduced a few months ago in all government offices.
The Odisha Secretariat Workflow Automation System (OSWAS) has been introduced in all the departments and directorates which acts as an adequate method of storing, maintaining and retrieving a large quantity of data with less paperwork, straightforward monitoring and tracking of records, instant approvals and SMS alerts as reminders for urgent documents.