The Assembly will commence webcast of its proceedings with the budget session beginning on Thursday.
While the Governor's address on the opening day and the presentation of the budget on March 19 will be webcast live, recordings of the rest of the proceedings will be put on the Web after a delay of about half an hour. Live broadcast of question hour is also being considered.
Speaker G. Karthikeyan told a press conference on Monday that the electronic systems needed for the webcast and computer-controlled conferencing systems, including better audio systems, had been set up in the Assembly hall and conference hall.
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The Assembly hall had got electronic voting system, closed circuit television systems, video archival system, and audio systems with stem-less microphones besides facility for simultaneous translation. The conference hall was equipped with self-switching audio systems.
The Speaker said modernisation of the Assembly had been completed at a cost of Rs.5.88 crore. The old cameras in the House had been replaced with eight full high definition cameras. Four of these cameras with ‘look at me' function were capable of automatically turning to the members whose microphones were working.
The fifth camera would show the Speaker as picture in picture. The other three cameras would provide an overview of the hall, including that of the well of the House. The media room used for holding press conferences had been provided with ‘ambient audio out' facility for picking up questions from journalists.
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Mr. Karthikeyan said it would now be possible to make presentations from laptops in the House as connectors had been provided for the purpose. Plasma displays had been set up for showing results of the voting in the House, messages, and presentations.
Half a dozen servers would be used for recording the proceedings, play out, archiving, and webcast. Videos would be recorded on hard disks and DVDs. Later, tape backup would be prepared for archiving. The National Informatics Centre was assisting the House with webcast.
He said the second day of the session would be devoted for reference to the late Governor M.O.H. Farook. The discussion on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address would take place from March 5 to 8.
The House would not be meeting from March 9 to 18 besides on March 7 and 30. The general discussion on the budget would take place on March 21, 22, and 26 and the discussion of demands for grants on account would be considered and put to vote on March 27.
The Appropriation Bill (Vote on Account) was to be considered and voted on March 29. The session would conclude on April 4.