Lucknow, Oct. 30 :     It will be the beginning of a brave new world for Uttar Pradesh?s 425 Assembly members. If a scheme of the UP Electronics Corporation (Uptron) takes off, each MLA will have a new gizmo to play with: a laptop computer. The plan to provide the expensive computers comes at a time when the state is struggling to manage its finances and even paying salaries is a cause for worry. Evidently, reality has been given the go-by in the bureaucratic haste to emulate cyber-savvy leaders like Andhra chief minister Chandrababu Naidu. The concept mooted by Uptron, a loss-making public sector unit on the verge of a turnaround, involves training MLAs and ministers in using computers and accessing details about their constituencies on the Internet. Uptron chief Arun Arya, an IAS officer with a St Stephens-IIM pedigree, said the legislators will literally have facts at their fingertips. Details like demographic profile, land use of each village in a constituency and availability of land for projects will be stored in the computers. The laptops will be connected to the main information server to be installed in the Assembly House through a built-in modem. The Vidhan Sabha hub will also have professionals to scan newspapers and post relevant clippings on the specially designed webpage of a constituency. For example, Kalyan Singh could look up www.atrauli.com or Akhilesh Singh (Congress) could access www.raebareily.com to get updates. ?Our aim to have a more informed MLA to give a new and speedy direction to development at the grassroots,? said Arya. It remains to be seen, however, if the legislators would be able to adjust to this whole new way of working. Expressing his reservations, minister Amarmani Tripathi said: ?Many MLAs don?t even read newspapers. It will be a long time before they wake up and reach for the laptop.? There is also the problem of finance. According to Uptron estimates, the project cost will be roughly Rs 10 crore. About 60 per cent will be spent on purchasing the laptops. A representation has been made to the Assembly Speaker who said finance could be arranged through a request for a supplementary grant in the next Assembly session in November. However, parliamentary affairs minister Hukum Singh said: ?It?s a very good idea in principle, but we have to see where the money will come from.?