SRINAGAR: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday directed all administrative departments to divide their reform action plans under the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) initiative into smaller, fortnightly deliverables to ensure timely implementation and progress tracking. The instruction was issued during a high-level review meeting held at the Civil Secretariat to assess ongoing efforts in compliance reduction and deregulation.
Chairing the meeting, the Chief Minister emphasised that while most action plans span timelines of five to six months, progress must be broken into manageable and trackable intervals. He ordered departments to upload finalised plans on the Management Information System (MIS) portal and begin execution without delay.
“We must proactively drive this reform process with accountability and regular monitoring,” Abdullah said, while announcing a bi-monthly review mechanism to evaluate reform implementation.
The meeting was held as part of a broader national initiative led by the Cabinet Secretariat in collaboration with the Prime Minister’s Office, NITI Aayog, DPIIT, and the Ministry of MSME. It aims to create a business-friendly regulatory landscape through compliance reduction, digitisation, single-window clearances, and the decriminalisation of minor business violations.
Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary, Advisor to the Chief Minister Nasir Aslam Wani, Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo, and other senior officers from key departments were present. Officials from Srinagar joined the meeting via video conferencing.
Commissioner Secretary Industries and Commerce Vikramjit Singh briefed attendees on the work of the J&K State Task Force, which has identified 23 priority areas for reform. These include land use regulations, building bylaws, labour laws, utility services, and general governance processes.
Key reforms under discussion included the digitisation of the Change of Land Use (CLU) process, rationalised road width norms for rural industries, GIS mapping of industrial estates integrated with the India Industrial Land Bank, and flexible zoning to allow mixed-use development. Also highlighted were labour reforms supporting night-time employment for women and raising worker thresholds, along with the simplification of licensing procedures.
The Chief Minister concluded by reiterating the importance of inter-departmental coordination and the urgent need to adhere to reform timelines, urging officers to treat the initiative as a top governance priority.
