The Hindu Business Line : ICC seeks independent body for single window clearances

Kolkata, June 23 The Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has asked the West Bengal Government to form an independent authority for single window system (SWS) to facilitate faster clearance of industrial projects, said Mr Harsh K Jha, President, ICC and Managing Director, Tata Metaliks, here on Monday.

This recommendation stems from a research conducted by ICC recently. According to the research, in West Bengal, 105 mandays are needed for obtaining and registering a property, while in Karnataka, it takes two days and in Gujarat, only one day for similar procedures. The only other State faring poorly to West Bengal, Mr Jha said, is Orissa, where it takes 155 days for land and other property clearances.

The recommendation, among a few others, was placed with the Commerce and Industry Department of West Bengal a week back in a report entitled ‘ICC Report on SWS’, Mr Jha told reporters, adding that no feedback has come from the state government as yet.

“The State Government and WBIDC should be accountable for each cycle of sanctioning a new project by passing quarterly reports,” he said, emphasising that this can only be done efficiently by conferring independent authorisation upon the SWS cell. SWS is often reduced to less important cell in an industrial promotion organisation, while “it demands separate attention,” Mr Jha said.

He also stressed on the need for passing a separate legislative Act for laying down a proper timeframe pertaining to various approvals.

West Bengal has, however, fared well in cutting down approval time for pollution clearance to 14 days compared with Orissa which takes 120 days for similar clearances, Mr Jha said. West Bengal ranks second in industrial entrepreneurial memorandum (IEM) conversion ratio, he said. The IER ratio for the state is 0.174 as compared with 0.184 in Gujarat, which is the leading state in this respect. The number of IEMs filed between January 2000 and December 2007 was 2,445 out of which 426 were implemented, he pointed out from the report.

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