Officials fail to comply with EODB reforms process

Chief Secretary’s directions to report on reforms lost in red tape

The State government has apparently landed in a piquant situation in terms of filing compliance reports relating to the reforms specified under the Ease of Doing Business (EODB).

With just three weeks left for submitting the compliance reports relating to 80 reforms under the EODB, the State is yet to receive reports relating to 14 reforms. The State has succeeded in putting in place compliance mechanism relating to 60 out of the 80 reforms specified under the EODB related to Pollution Control Board, Forests, Industries, Energy, GST and other departments.

There was delay in implementing several of the 20 reforms as they were multi-departmental in nature. Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi during the review meetings conducted on the progress has insisted that the departments scrupulously follow the guidelines and ensure that they complied with all the parameters specified under the EODB, jointly monitored by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and the World Bank.

Found wanting

The departments concerned were asked to be prepared with compliance reports pertaining to the 20 reforms by February 15. “There is no response from departments concerned on the compliance mechanism related to 14 reforms so far,” a senior official told

The Hindu .

The departments were also found to be wanting in terms of putting in place a feedback mechanism to obtain views of the stakeholders on the implementation of the reforms. The issue assumes significance as the State was ranked alongside Andhra Pradesh in the EODB rankings in spite of scoring 100 in reform evidence as compared to the score of 97 by the neighbouring State which took the lead in setting up of the feedback mechanism.

The government took a serious note of the delays in filing of the compliance reports by the departments concerned and they were, accordingly, directed to prepare a comprehensive report on the status of the compliance at the earliest. “We have to expedite the process so that the compliance report can be submitted before the deadline,” the official said.