Paper-free ‘Digital Parliament’ initiative stutters at the start

Building a ‘digital Bangladesh’ has been a key plank of the Awami League-led government’s campaign, but initiative to ‘digitalise’ Parliament has fallen flat on its face.

The ninth Parliament first took the initiative to digitalise the legislature and even laptops were distributed among the MPs. But, that’s all the initiative has to show for.

In 2011, the government bought the laptops but the MPs had to wait for another three years to lay their hands on them.

The laptops remained unpacked in the parliament's warehouse for over a year.

The Parliament Secretariat has failed to go far in setting up a ‘Digital Plenary Chamber’, although it has been a year since the new government took over.

The project to digitalise the assembly had plans to install laptops at every MP’s seat and introduce electronic voting and e-billing systems.

Everything, from parliamentary debate to the day’s notice, was supposed to be saved in those laptops. Separate blogs for MPs on the Parliament website were also planned.

Parliament Secretariat said it wanted to execute the project by June 2012 but failed after Korea’s development arm, KOICA, suddenly pulled out of the project.

Khan Md Ilias, senior systems analyst at Parliament Secretariat’s e-service management division, said they were looking for a donor.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, who took over at the end of the ninth Parliament, said she wanted to go ahead with the project.

“We want such [projects] to limit the use of papers in Parliament’s daily affairs. I’ll speak with the relevant officials over the matter,” she told bdnews24.com.