Bhubaneswar Bureau
Bhubaneswar, June 16: Department of Water Resource records 100% compliance followed by Industries with 98% of compliance, claims official press note on a review by the Chief Secretary of Orissa. For records, we produce below the press note.
With lauded achievement of 7th position in the ‘Ease of doing business Indices’ among Indian States, Odisha now targets to achieve 3rd position in next assessment to be done by World Bank and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion ( DIPP) Govt of India. A high level review meeting to this effect was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Sri Aditya Parsad Padhi in secretariat conference hall today,wherein Principal Secretary Industry Sri Sanjeeb Chopra presented the updates for discussion. Reviewing the
progress, Chief Secretary Sri Padhi directed concerned departments to prioritize implementation of the reforms as departmental agenda and achieve the set targets by 30th July. Principal Secretary Sri Chopra said that the reforms implemented by various departments within 30th July would be taken to consideration in coming assessment of Indian states.Chief Secretary Sri Padhi directed the departments to upload the reforms implemented in their respective departmental websites in a prominent and user friendly manner so that investors can easily access and use it while complying to various statutory clearances and certificates. Sri Padhi also advised to upload the timelines decided for various services to be provided by the concerned department in ease of doing business. Chief Secretary further directed to undertake intensive awareness building activities on the reform measures among the down line executing officials and the potential investors. The departments were advised to segregate and categorize various points applicable for different types of industries and communicate with them accordingly through e-mail, mass media and SMS modes. It was decided that all the concerned departments would take up proactive steps to diffuse information about reform among the investors and 1st generation entrepreneurs.
Available data show, a total number of 340 reform points were suggested for making the process of doing business more facilitative and proactive. Out of these 30 points were found ‘not applicable’ for Orissa. So far, around 258 action points have been complied which counts for around 83% of compliance. The compliance to reform agenda by the departments varied from 46 to 100%. The department of water resource recorded 100% compliance to reform agenda by 16th of June, 2016. Similarly, the compliance of the departments like Commercial taxes, Energy, Labor & Employees State Insurance, Industries and Pollution Control Board varied from 82 to 98%. The overall compliance by 16th June was around 83% It may be pertinent here to mention that recently one of the World Bank assessments has ranked Bhubaneswar as 3rd best city in India to do the Business. This has been also reflected in the latest mobile app of ‘Odisha New Opportunities’ launched by Industries department. It was decided in the meeting that State updates would be uploaded regularly in the central web portal on ease of doing business for reflecting Orissa’s competitive position at national level.
Principal Secretary Energy Water Resources Sri Pradeep Kumar Jena, Principal Secretary Revenue and Disaster Management Dr. Mona Sharma, Commissioner Commercial Tax Sri Saswat Mishra, Labour Commissioner Smt. Roopa Mishra along with other senior officers from IPICOL, departments of Industries and Law participated in the discussions.