Jammu: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today chaired a high-level meeting to review progress on Compliance Reduction and Deregulation 2.0, a comprehensive national initiative aimed at easing regulatory burdens and fostering a more business-friendly, citizen-centric environment across Jammu and Kashmir, an official press release informed.
“We should endeavour to make life easy not just for industry, but for the common population as well,” the chief minister said while emphasising this core governance philosophy.
Under Phase 1 of the programme, the J&K Government had defined 23 priority reform areas and successfully achieved all set targets. Phase 2 builds on this foundation, expanding the scope across 23 new critical and priority areas covering healthcare, education, tourism, and industry besides other sectors.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary, alongside Ministers Sakeena Itoo, Javed Ahmed Rana, Javid Ahmad Dar and Satish Sharma. Advisor to the Chief Minister Nasir Aslam Wani also participated in the deliberations.
The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo and Additional Chief Secretary for the Chief Minister’s Office Dheeraj Gupta. Those also present included Financial Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary of the Power Development Department Ashwani Kumar, Financial Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary of the Tourism Department Dr. Ashish Chandra Verma besides other senior officers.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary presented the current status of the ongoing reforms, highlighting the objective to substantially reduce the permissions required to start and run a business.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah conducted an in-depth review of each intervention area, seeking specific timelines from the departments concerned. He underscored that the purpose of regulations is to organise systems efficiently, not to create unnecessary procedural hurdles for the public.
The chief minister emphasised the need for simpler, more direct processes across sectors and called for a visible reduction in red tape in the government’s dealings with citizens and businesses.
The meeting took stock of a broad range of priority interventions under discussion, spanning land use, industry, education, healthcare and digital governance. The issues that came up for discussion included land use framework to ease building permissions and industrial land utilisation in rural and urban areas, removing dual licensing requirements for businesses and strengthening the role of a nodal agency for industrial development to deal with industrial approvals.
The meeting also deliberated on simplifying minimum requirement norms for private educational institutions and streamlining medical practitioner registration through a unified licensing mechanism for the healthcare sector.
At the systemic level, the meeting discussed measures to strengthen digital governance infrastructure. These included establishing an auto-appeal mechanism under the Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA) to ensure time-bound delivery of citizen services and creating a centralised digital repository of all state acts, rules, regulations and Government Orders, along with a concurrent review to assess the relevance of various regulations from time to time.
Reducing end-to-end turnaround times on the Single Window System was also highlighted as a priority area.
Concluding the meeting, the chief minister directed all departments to furnish measurable timelines for each reform intervention under discussion. He reiterated that easing the regulatory environment remains central to J&K’s objective of attracting investment and ensuring that the progress under Phase 2 delivers tangible benefit to citizens, entrepreneurs and investors.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister today inaugurated a newly constructed block at the Civil Secretariat, Jammu, aimed at augmenting office infrastructure and improving the working facilities for employees.
The new block is expected to significantly add to the available workspace, further strengthening administrative efficiency and overall functioning at the Secretariat, an official press release said.
It said Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary, Advisor to the Chief Minister Nasir Aslam Wani, MLA Bani Rameshwar Singh, Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary Estates Shaleen Kabra, Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister Dheeraj Gupta, Director Estates Jammu Ashwani Khajuria and other concerned officers were also present on the occasion.
