Patna, April 28: The industries department will act as the nodal agency for a revamped single-window clearance system to be governed by a board comprising officials of six other departments.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar has asked the industries department to work on it by July 1. Industries minister Jai Kumar Singh said the new system would be under the direct control of his department to provide the basic clearances needed for the project.
"Altogether, 19 kinds of no-objection certificates (NoCs) and approvals are necessary for any new industry in the pre-establishment stage," Singh said. "The important ones among them include NoCs from pollution control board, public health and engineering, fire safety, building construction, labour, electricity and other departments. It has been decided that a board, consisting of officials of these departments, will be formed and the industries department will be the nodal agency for the same. Whenever an interested investor approaches, all the basic pre-establishment clearances will be facilitated by the industries department and the investor will not have to go to each of them. Until the project (industry) is on ground and has started functioning, all decisions regarding clearances will be taken by the nodal agency. Once the unit starts operating, the other departments are free to look into other elements. This move will ensure that during the whole process of making an industry functional, the investor will not have to run from one table to the other."
At present, an investor has to go to different departments for clearances. "Having got the above clearances under one roof, the job of any investor will be easy. Nitish, during the review meeting on Thursday, had stressed on a completely new single-window system. This will be an important feature of the new act which will start functioning from July 1," he added.
Industrialists welcomed the move. "Why didn't the state government think about these and act accordingly all these years? The condition now is that of insecurity after the sudden prohibition order, affecting many. The investors are in two minds about investing in the state as many of them fear that the government might close down any kind of industry they want to all of a sudden citing certain reasons. However, the move on the whole is good and investor-friendly," a Patna-based industrialist said requesting anonymity.
Apart from the single-window system, a new industrial area incentive policy, handloom and handicraft policy and start-up policy will be implemented from July 1.
"The government has already created a venture capital fund of Rs 500 crore for start-ups. It has been decided that the state government will not play a major role in case of start-ups. The government will only provide financial support. A decision has been taken that Small Industries Development Bank of India will coordinate with the state government towards providing other kinds of support to the start-ups. The SIDBI will decide on which start-up should be selected and the same will be forwarded to the government for finances. Within a fortnight, another meeting with the chief secretary regarding these policies will take place. After this, the final meeting regarding the approval of the policies will take place with Nitish presiding over it," Jai added.
