CS reviews implementation of Business Reform Action Plan /Ease of Doing Business reforms in J&K

SRINAGAR : The Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta today chaired a meeting to review the implementation of Business Reform Action Plan/ Ease of Doing Business reforms (EoDB) in Jammu and Kashmir.

Administrative Secretaries of departments of Finance, Housing & Urban Development, Agriculture Production & Farmers Welfare, General Administration, Labour & Employment, Forest, Ecology & Environment, Industries & Commerce, School Education, Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, and Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs along with the concerned sectoral heads participated in the meeting.

It was informed that while in the BRAP ranking released by DPIIT for the fiscal 2018-19, Jammu and Kashmir was ranked 21st, the UT is striving towards being amongst first ten performers in the country in EoDB ranking during the fiscal 2021-22.

The department informed that EoDB ranking for the fiscal year 2019-20 has not been released as yet and if and when it is released, the UT would be better placed corresponding to its rank in the fiscal year 2018-19.

It was informed that the department has made substantial progress on minimising regulatory compliance burden and that it is expecting a considerable jump in the MRCB ranking as and when it is announced.

It was further informed that J&K is amongst the leading 10 best MRCB complied States/UTs and that the UT has set the target of achieving 750 and 1200 reform points under MRCB by December 2021 and March 2022 respectively.

It was informed that 64 services under SBRAP have been integrated on the single window platform and work on bringing the remaining 62 onboard is underway.

The department further stated that out of 301 action points identified under SBRAP, 104 points have been implemented and that the remaining 197 reforms will be expeditiously implemented.

The Chief Secretary directed that end-to-end digitization of all services identified under (EoDB) should be completed by first week of November.

While stating that the UT of J&K has to be amongst the top five best performing States/UTs in the country on BRAP/EoDB, Dr Mehta stated that if the finalisation of vendor for carrying out IT related tasks for implementation of EoDB is holding up the progress in the matter, the department should immediately use the services of JKeGA/NIC for implementing the EoDB in the UT.

“Applications/software/IT solutions for implementation of the BRAP/EoDB reforms have been developed by a few progressive States. They can be simply replicated with need based/localised customisation in J&K,” He stated

The Chief Secretary directed the I&C department to share the number of services /areas where full stack automation/reforms are pending and share the same with the concerned departments so that work on executing them is expedited.

“Consultant, I&C shall interact with the Nodal officers of all the departments and identify the areas where executive intervention on their end is required for urgent action,” Dr Mehta added.

While announcing that another review of the progress made on his directions shall be taken in a week, the Chief Secretary directed the Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Department to coordinate with all the departments in expediting the implementation of BRAP/EoDP.