Hyderabad: A penalty of Rs 1,000 per day will be levied on any official who delays clearing industrial approvals without a valid reason. The Telangana government has further tightened norms for officials and departments by specifying deadlines to grant approvals.
Investors brought to the notice of the government that some departments were delaying approvals contrary to the government’s deadline of three weeks. Following this, the government made certain changes on Wednesday to the norms to plug the loopholes. The orders were issued by industries secretary Arvind Kumar.
The order states that, “A penalty of Rs 1,000 for each day till approval is accorded or reason for rejection/delay in according approval is furnished. However, the total amount of such penalty shall not exceed Rs 25,000 in any particular case and all cases.
Where penalty exceeds this said amount it shall be reported to T-Swift. The penalty is subject to revision by government from time to time. The penal amount so collected shall be credited into the government treasury.”
Industries minister Jupally Krishna Rao said the changes were aimed to check unnecessary delays in granting approvals and to bring accountability among officials. TS-iPASS, the government’s online industrial approval policy unveiled in June, had issued 1,103 approvals for investments worth Rs 25,970 crore and with employment potential of 76,314 jobs, Mr Rao said. “We want to expedite the approval process further,” the minister added.
The officials have been set the following deadlines
- 21 days: Pollution Control Board authorisation under hazardous waste
- 7 days: Collector's no-objection certificate for explosives licence and change of land use
- 7 days: Irrigation department NOC for change of land use
- 15 days: Forest department permission for cutting non-exempted trees under WALTA.
- 7 days: TSPCB should approve renewal of consent for operation
- 3 days: Factories department has to renew factory licence
- 7 days: Boilers department should renew boiler licences
