E-gazette to save Rs.40cr worth paper | Fusion - WeRIndia

Every year approximately 3.5 crore pages of gazette notifications are printed. With the launch of the E-gazette, the Government is estimating to save 90 tonnes of paper which is worth around Rs.40 crore annually. With the help of E-gazette the need for physical printing will be gone. It is not just paper that is saved with this move, it will also save power, chemicals, colour and dyes. It is a major environment-friendly initiative indeed.

Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu has made the order to put an end to the physical printing of these notifications from October 1. A spokesperson from the urban ministry has stated that the initiative to do e-publishing will also put an end to the long wait for the important documents. With physical printing, it used to take weeks or sometimes even months in many cases.

The gazette notifications are used as a legal requirement to validate, authenticate and to put in action various kinds of laws, Acts, rules, orders and government decisions.

According to the official release of Urban Development Ministry, the switch to E-gazettes is aimed to end delays in printing. They ordered the department of publication to stop physical printing and use e-publishing of all gazette notifications on the official website. They will be published online within five days of receipt of the notification from respective ministries and departments. The department will maintain the records for the gazette for the purpose of future references.

Any citizen can visit the website and download and print the gazette notifications without having to pay anything. The IT Act states that printed gazette copies are enough for all official and legal purposes

This new move is also a part of the Digital India initiative by the Prime Minister. Even though it was launched in April 2008, E-gazette website has now become popular. The proposal from UD was already given the green signal by law ministry.

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