Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Ananth Kumar inaugurated the 18th All India Whips meet at Radisson Blu in Udaipur today. Ananth Kumar proposed rolling out e-Sansad and e-Vidhan, two of the governments mission mode projects under Digital India aimed at incorporating paperless Parliament and state legislatures functioning.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE 8 Jan 1100hrs: Inauguration (Radisson Blu) 1330hrs: First Session – Action Report analysis on recommendations of 16th and 17th conference (Radisson Blu) 1600-1730hrs: Secon Session – Discussions on “Effective Operations of the Legislature” (Jag Mandir) 1800-1900hrs: Cultural Evening (Jag Mandir) 9 Jan 1000-1200hrs: Third Session – e-Sansad and e-Vidhan 1200-1300hrs: Closing Session by Kailash Meghwal, Speaker of Legislative Assembly

The conference, scheduled for Jan 8-9 will be attended by whips representing various parties on the state platform. According to an official, e-Sansad and e-Vidhan are mission projects under the Digital India project, aimed at establishing paperless functioning for the Parliament and state Legilatures respectively.

In addition to the above, action taken reports by the States and Union territories on the recommendations of the 16th and 17th Whips conference that were held in Goa and Visakhapatnam respectively will be studied along with evaluation of the efficient functioning of the legislatures.

e-Vidhan, according to the agenda, aims at making the state legislatures paperless, transparent, productive as well as accountable to the public culminating in making the entire legislative proces efficient and economical.

Whips conference makes a number of recommendations for the smooth and efficient working of Parliament and legislatures in the light of experience gained by the Whips.

The inauguration of the 18th Whips Conference took place at Radisson Blu, Udaipur at 11 am today, in the presence of Union Minister Ananth Kumar, State Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and Vijay Goel.

Who is a Whip

A whip is a member of political party’s parliamentary body responsible for discipline within the party. Their main job is ensuring that their members in Parliament and Legislature vote in line with the Party’s official policy on important issues.  The office of Whip is neither mentioned in the Constitution of India, nor in the Rules of the House, nor in the Parliamentary Statute.  It is based on conventions of Parliamentary government.