MANISH GUPTA
Ranchi, Aug 17: The Single Window System (SWS) of the state industries department is facing major non-cooperation from various departments of the state making it difficult for the businesses to plan their entry and expansion in Jharkhand.
“There’s nothing we can do. We do not have any authority over other departments. We can only request and follow up with the respective departments for various clearances,” said two officials who are aware of the functioning of the system.
Industrialists and traders of Jharkhand have been complaining about the failure of the single window system saying it is not serving the purpose of getting required clearances from under one roof and without pleading with different departments.
The single window system accepts applications from investors for clearances from all departments related to the particular business. There are a total of 28 departments and the applications are transferred to the departments concerned.
“While all the departments are supposed to either approve, reject or raise their queries online within a stipulated time period, some of them create hurdles deliberately. They take advantage of some of the loopholes and give unclear guidelines so that the files get stuck. Their aim is to make the industrialists approach them directly,” they added.
“Some of the departments feel it is a surrender/ transfer of their authority to the single window system of the industries department, while some may have their own motives. However, the entire idea is that if we need to have a better ease of doing business in Jharkhand and for that, all departments have to be cooperative,” they further said.
Among all the departments the most notorious for holding back investors’ applications are Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board and Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited. However, Departments of Labour including factory and Road Construction also have large numbers of applications pending under them for approval.
Going by the Jharkhand Single Window Clearance System website, there were 35,979 applications made on the system in the year 2021 and 31,959 were approved. While 2,595 applications were rejected, 1,425 applications were pending in 2021.
Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FJCCI) President Dheeraj Taneja recently said, “The single window system is absolutely defunct. There are no timelines for the clearances from respective departments. Despite filing the applications online, the businessmen have to chase each department separately.”
