Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation will send agendas for its general body and all committees by email from November, ending the routine of printing and distributing paper copies to councillors, committee members and officials.
The civic body said the change is intended to reduce paper consumption, printing expenses and distribution costs. The new digital agenda system will apply to meetings of the general body, the standing committee and other AMC committees.
Until now, agenda documents were printed before committee meetings and sent to councillors, committee members and officials from the relevant departments. Printed copies were also placed on the tables of councillors during general body meetings. Under the revised arrangement, these physical copies will no longer be supplied at councillors’ homes or placed on their tables during meetings.
Instead, agendas will be circulated electronically by email to all councillors and concerned officers. The new process for general body agendas is scheduled to begin in November, while the digital system is intended to cover all AMC committees.
The change required an amendment to provisions of the Gujarat Provincial Municipal Corporations Act. The existing arrangement required general body agendas to be sent to the homes of all councillors. According to the report, the civic body discussed the proposed change with the state government before the relevant amendment was made, allowing general body agendas to be sent through digital channels.
The decision was presented as both an environmental and administrative measure. Ahmedabad’s mayor said reducing paper use was necessary because trees are used in paper production. The corporation said that moving committee agendas online would reduce the volume of paper required for printing and eliminate the costs associated with preparing and distributing physical copies.
The change affects an administrative process that operates before every committee and general body meeting. Under the earlier system, the corporation had to prepare multiple printed sets, deliver them to councillors and officials, and arrange additional copies for use during meetings. The digital system will replace those steps with electronic circulation.
For councillors and officials, the meeting agenda will therefore be accessed through the email distribution system rather than through printed documents. The supplied report does not specify whether AMC will introduce a separate document portal, digital authentication process, offline access facility or alternative arrangement for recipients who cannot access the agenda electronically.
The decision also marks a change in how the statutory requirement relating to general body agendas will be implemented. The state-level amendment has enabled the corporation to move away from home delivery and table copies while retaining electronic circulation as the official method described in the announcement.
AMC’s digital agenda arrangement is expected to take effect during November. The corporation’s announcement did not provide a separate schedule for the rollout across individual committees or disclose the estimated annual savings in printing and distribution costs.
