As many as 68 industries’ related approvals were shortlisted for being covered under Right to Service Act. The list of services was finalized after detail deliberations held under the chairmanship of Mr. Sarvesh Kaushal, Chief Secretary Punjab with representatives of various departments involved in giving day to day approvals to Industrial units in the State. The Departments included Industries & Commerce, Power, Forests, Labour, Punjab Pollution Control Board, Excise & Taxation etc. RTS Act has been enacted with the sole objective of providing an effective frame work for time bound delivery of services being provided by various government departments in order to promote transparency and accountability.
The Punjab Right to Service Act has empowered people to seek services in a hassle free, corruption free, transparent and time-bound manner through different service delivery mechanism.25 services of Punjab Pollution Control Board which were shortlisted for inclusion under RTS act included Grant of Consent to establish (NoC) to Green industry (15 days), Grant of Consent to establish Medium/Large scale Orange/Red Industry (21 days), Grant to Consent to operate Small/Medium/Large scale Green industries (15 days), Grant of Consent to Operate other Industries (30 days), Grant of authorization under Hazardous wastes, e-Waste, Bio Medical waste (30 days), declaration of analysis results for effluent samples collected (15 days) etc.
CS stressed the chairman PPCB to provide the services online for the convenience of the industrialists of the State. 20 services of Excise Departments shortlisted to be brought under the act included Grant/Amendment of Registration Certificate (30 days), Liquor related licenses (60 days), Licenses to Marriage Palaces (30 days), Issuance of Advance Tax Exemption Certificate (60 days), Renewal of Advance Tax Exemption Certificate (30 days), Luxury Tax registration (30 days). Chief Secretary asked the Department of Excise to develop online MIS reports to monitor the services’ pendency in the State. He also asked all the concerned departments to simplify the application forms of the services and also re-engineer the age old processes in collaboration with Punjab Governance Reforms Commission.
9 New services of Department of Power, shortlisted to be brought under the Act included Issue of NoC for release of connection in colonies (45 days), Approval of supply of power from roof top solar projects installed by consumers (30 days), Implementation of Permanent Disconnection Order (7 days), Refund of arrears on account of energy bills (15 days), Replacement of damaged/burnt CT/PT units (15 days), testing of private meter in ME lab (15 days). CS asked all the departments to benchmark the delivery timeline of the services against the best of the Industrial States of the country to facilitate the investors to set up industrial units in the State. The Department of Labour has also shortlisted 9 new services to be brought under the Act. The services included Registration under Contract Labour Act,1970 (30 days), License under the Contract Labour Act (30 days), Registration under Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishments Act (30 days), Acceptance of plans of new factory building (30 days), Factory registration (15 days) etc. 5 Services of Department of Forests shortlisted for inclusion were Processing of diversion of forest land under Forest Conservation Act (7 days), NOC to Site Appraisal Committee (15 days), Issue of permit for felling of trees in the areas notified under Punjab Land Preservation Act (60 days) etc.
Chief Secretary stressed upon the need to single window application acceptance and disposal of all Industry related applications either through Suwidha Kendras or upcoming Sewa Kendras to generate the automatic MIS reports and tracking at State level. He also advised that auto generated text messages should also go to every applicant at various stages of disposal. This will also help in better monitoring of services delivery at State level. CS also directed the Industries department to ensure that the essential services related to Focal Points also be included under the Act.The meeting was attended by Mr Viswajit Khanna, Principal Secretary Housing & Urban Development, Mr. Anirudh Tewari, Principal Secretary Industries & Commerce, Mr. A Venuprasad, Secretary Power, Mr. Manpreet Singh, Chairman PPCB , Mr. S R Ladhar, Secretary Industries and other officials of the concerned departments.