Odisha govt saved 700 trees by switching over to paperless budgeting: Governor

Bhubaneswar, Feb 15: Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal has said that the state government has saved around 700 big trees by partially switching over to paperless budgeting in 2019-20 fiscal, officials said on Saturday.

Digital methods had substantially reduced the printing of documents during the 2019-20 annual budget, the governor was quoted as saying.

"It (the partial switchover) has reduced the printing of about 57 lakh pages which saved around 700 large trees," Lal had said during his address to the Assembly before the commencement of its budget session on Friday.

In the future, the state government intends to completely shift to paperless budgeting, the governor said.

Lal said that the state government has also introduced a single-page salary bill for its employees and pension papers are now being electronically processed through the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS).

The state government has implemented the Odisha Secretariat Workflow Automation System (OSWAS) in all the departments and directorates, the governor said.

OSWAS provides an effective method of storing, maintaining and retrieving a large volume of data with less paperwork, easy monitoring and tracking of files, instant approvals and SMS alerts as reminders for urgent documents, Lal adde