The Madhya Pradesh Cabinet on Wednesday cleared a bill which will ensure time-bound delivery of industrial clearances for greenfield projects and penal provisions for officials who fail to deliver the clearances within the stipulated timeframe.
Called the ‘Madhya Pradesh Time-Bound Clearance Act,’ the draft bill ensures that 40 clearances and permissions pertaining to almost 10 state departments will have to be delivered within a fixed timeframe.
Officials and personnel who are found to be delaying the clearances could be persecuted under the new Bill, a senior state government official said.
The new law will be applicable to greenfield industrial projects under Information Technology, Tourism, MSME and Industries categories.
The applications for seeking these permissions that include from professional tax department, building and constructions department etc have to be sent through the online portal of the state government, the official said.
“This is perhaps the first time any state government has provided legal backing to time-bond clearance of industrial permissions and licenses for setting up new industries," Rajesh Rajora, Madhya Pradesh's Principle Secretary for Industries told Business Standard.
He said that the new Bill will be presented in the forthcoming sessions of the state assembly scheduled in March.
The draft bill states that 25 permissions and clearances for setting up new industries in the categorized sectors will have to be provided within one day of application, 10 clearances in seven days and five crucial permissions within 15 days.
These clearances include permissions from the crucial environment department.