Good lessons from a Punjab model

Speaking to this newspaper, Punjab’s deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal outlined a system of industrial clearances the state plans to roll out shortly. A single window clearance is par for the course, for such reform. What is a new departure is the proposal to grant clearances on trust, so that time is not wasted on scrutiny, inspection, evaluation and issuance of clearance. A sample of 10%-15% of such clearances would be taken up for audit, ex-post, of compliance with norms and submissions. Any deviation would attract severe penalty. Now, this is an approach that certainly would speed up tardy clearances (the article alongside by Swaminathan SA Aiyar has some details as to how tardy). This is one step ahead of the Centre’s mechanism of instituting a Cabinet Committee on Investments, to take decisions that individual babus are too scared to take on their own.

However, the proposed system can work only if detailed, unambiguous norms are laid out, so that industry knows what needs to be complied with and mischievous babus have no leeway to levelcharges of norm violation. The state has also adopted self-attestation of personal documents, such as mark sheets or birth certificates, instead of asking people to get these attested by gazetted officers. This is in line with the recommendation made by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, and endorsed by the Centre.

Effective devolution of powers to local governments and placing the bureaucracy at each level under the disciplinary control at that level is another needed reform, besides extensive use of e-governance that Punjab seeks to put in place to reduce the interface between the government and the citizen. The UK and Canada, regions that inspire many Punjabis, do make extensive use of e-governance.