K.N Balagopal presents first paperless budget in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, March 11 Kerala Finance Minister K.N Balagopal on Friday presented the first ever paperless budget in the state.

However, the opposition took a dig at him for using an i-pad to present the budget saying there was a time when the minister was at the forefront of protest against technology as the CPI-M was dead against it.

Balagopal rose in the party through the students' movement and in the youth wing of the president and went on to become the all India president of both the party's student and youth wings.

Explaining the stance of the CPI-M, Congress veteran and two-time former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that in the 70s, the CPI-M opposed tractors, in the 80s they opposed computers. They had also attacked the Asian Development Bank officials while they went for a discussion and now have embraced everything.

"When I was the Finance Minister (1991-94), the Left unions had gone berserk and damaged computers in one of my departments, when we tried to computerise. Unfortunately in Kerala, what matters more is not what's being done, but who is doing it," he added.

During the budget presentation this morning, Speaker M.B.Rajesh intervened and pointed out that this is the first time that a paperless budget was being presented in the state.