Kolkata, June 4 (AHN) The previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government was reluctant to get involved with several important central projects, including the National E-Vidhan Application (NeVA), West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Thursday.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on Thursday to launch NeVA in West Bengal, enabling the implementation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “One Nation One Application” vision in the state.

Speaking on the occasion, CM Adhikari highlighted that during the previous regime, the people of West Bengal were denied the benefits of several central projects due to the reluctance to link the state to such initiatives.

“The previous government was not involved in any central project. That list also included projects like ‘One Nation One Application’, which is much more transparent and modern. There are also multiple digitalisation facilities under this system. So far, voting has been conducted on paper in the West Bengal Assembly. The electronic system is not yet working here. Despite the large assembly, there is no live streaming here. The previous government did not take any step in this matter,” the Chief Minister said.

In a message, Union Parliamentary Affairs and Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the NeVA project had emerged as a transformative digital platform enabling legislatures to conduct their business in a paperless, efficient, and transparent manner, thereby enhancing efficiency, accountability, and accessibility of legislative functioning.

Union Minister of State for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal also issued a message claiming that the NeVA project represented a vital step towards strengthening parliamentary democracy through technology by digitising and modernising legislative bodies and making their functioning more transparent, accountable, efficient, and sustainable.

“This digital movement will bring all legislatures into a single platform and make them readily accessible to our citizens,” Meghwal added.