Punjab implements 301 reforms, reducing 300 compliances

Chandigarh: Adding another feather to its cap, Punjab has successfully implemented 301 reforms while the reduction of 300 compliances by 17 different departments was in progress to give a further boost to the industry and trade in the border state.

The reforms were part of the State Reforms Action Plan (SRAP) 2020-21,implemented across different departments.

The Chief Secretary, Ms Vini Mahajan, reviewed the implementation of the SRAP while chairing a meeting of the concerned Administrative Secretaries, here on Thursday.

She directed the department heads to ensure proper implementation of all the reforms and reduce the compliance burden for industries so that Punjab shall lead the country in ‘ease of doing business’ for the industry and trade as well as for citizen centric services providing ‘ease of living’ for the people in the state.

Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Alok Shekhar, informed that these 301 reforms have been implemented by the concerned departments and all evidences have been submitted to the DPIIT within the stipulated time by January 31.

The DPIIT will rank the states based on the user feedback against these 301 reforms for which user data from November 1, 2020, to April 30, 2021, will be considered.

Till date, more than 4,000 satisfied users have been generated across various services by the respective departments with customer feedback.

The Chief Secretary appreciated the efforts undertaken by all the departments in implementation of reforms and further directed the concerned Administrative Secretaries to disseminate the information as well as engage with stakeholders to create awareness about the new reforms implemented and online services developed.

The progress of reducing regulatory compliance burden was also reviewed by the Chief Secretary at the meeting.

Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, further informed that the exercise of reduction of compliance burden was being implemented across 31 different departments and about 300 compliances have been identified for reduction by 17 departments.

The Chief Secretary directed the Administrative Secretaries of the remaining 14 departments to study their existing Acts, Rules and Regulations for ensuring that the required action plan to reduce the compliance burden was prepared in a time bound fashion .

Ms Mahajan directed all the departments to work towards reducing compliance burden for industries leading to ‘ease of doing business’ for the industry and trade as well as for citizen centric services providing ‘ease of living’ for the people in the state.

She also instructed all the departments to complete the exercise of reducing compliance burden as per the stipulated timelines by the Government of India.