Himachal Pradesh to present country's first paperless Budget

SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh is set to become the country's first state to present a 'paperless' budget on March 11. Since the state already has the country's first green assembly, all documents related to budget estimates would be made available online and only around 10 budget copies would be printed for record.


Earlier, around 200 copies along with huge volumes of other documents used to be published during the budget session. Running the proceedings on e-Vidhan would save the state exchequer Rs 15 crore annually.

Confirming the e-plan, HP assembly Speaker BB Butail said only 10 or 15 copies of the budget would be published, that too for records. "Otherwise, no other paper document would be published as all information would be uploaded on the e-Vidhan system," he added.
Butail said the state assembly is the first to be selected for e-Vidhan programme. He said National Informatics Centre Services Inc was the implementing agency for the project. Ensuring paperless work, the day-to-day functioning of the House was done online and it not only saved Rs 15 crore annually but also 6,000-odd trees, he said.

Chief minister Virbhadra Singh had inaugurated e-Vidhan on August 4, 2014. "This is for the first time the budget session would be held under e-Vidhan," he added

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AAP foreign funding not in contravention of law: Government to Delhi High Court

New Delhi: Government on Wednesday informed Delhi High Court that nothing has been found against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in its probe regarding allegations that it had received offshore funds in violation of FCRA provisions.

The counsel appearing for the Home Ministry told a bench, comprising Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice RS Endlaw, that the Intelligence Bureau (IB) report has found nothing against the AAP. The court, however, directed the government to file a fresh status report in a sealed cover regarding its findings in the matter.
The court reserved the verdict on the plea seeking CBI probe into the past and present foreign funding of AAP in alleged violation of FCRA provisions.
"We will take into consideration all the facts and then decide the matter. Judgement reserved," it said. Advocate Pranav Sachdeva, appearing for AAP, said the party had not flouted any law in receiving foreign funds and got donations worth Rs 30 crore from Indian citizens only, of which about Rs 8.5 crore came from NRIs.
Terming the charges levelled against AAP as "baseless", he said the party has even written to Supreme Court to set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the funding of all major national and regional parties in the country.
The plea, moved before the high court on February 4, had also sought CBI probe against Home Ministry officials, who in their report had earlier stated that donations made by eight foreign residents to AAP, were not in violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA).

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AIB Roast row: Deepika, Sonakshi and 14 others may face punishment upto 5 to 10 years of imprisonment and fine upto Rs.2 Lakh.

Bollywood stars Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Sonakshi Sinha, Arjun Kapoor and director Karan Johar have been named in a FIR registered by the Pune Police. In the FIR the stars have been accesed of collective AIB of obscene behaviour in a public place. YouTube too was named in the FIR for distributing the offensive content of the AIB Roast even that was held in Mumbai in December.


Earlier, the Maharashtra government and Mumbai police had initiated separate investigations into allegations of "abusive and filthy" language used by Bollywood director Karan Johar and actors Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh at an event.
The FIR has been filed under sections 292 (Distribution of obscene content or lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest), Section 294 (Obscene Act in public place) of the Indian Penal Code and section 67a of IT Act (Publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc. in electronic form).

The stars may face punishment upto 5 to 10 years of imprisonment and fine upto Rs.2 Lakh.
After taking down the controversial AIB Roast video from YouTube, the comic group All India Bakchod has issued a statement on the whole controversy and why they decided to take off the video. The video, which went viral on the online video sharing platform since being posted on January 28, was pulled out Tuesday night.

The Roast, organised by a group of stand-up comedians called All India Bakchod (AIB), poked fun at the roastees - Bollywood actors Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor, and was hosted by filmmaker Karan Johar.

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