Lucknow: The Centre on Friday reviewed UP’s progress under the second phase of its deregulation programme and asked the state to speed up reforms aimed at cutting regulatory compliances and simplifying approvals across 23 sectors, including health, tourism, labour, power and urban development.The review, chaired by Union MSME secretary Bharat Harbanslal Khera along with chief secretary S P Goyal came as part of Centre’s push to deepen regulatory reforms beyond the first round of compliance reduction, in which UP had emerged the top-ranked state.Chief secretary Goyal directed departments to accelerate implementation, saying ease of doing business should be reflected in faster and more transparent govt processes rather than remaining confined to policy announcements.The reforms under review cover key sectors such as revenue, medical health, tourism, fire services, environment, industrial development and labour. The state govt said the ongoing exercise builds on reforms undertaken during the first phase of compliance reduction, which included simplification of land administration, building plan approvals, labour regulations and utility-related permissions, besides greater digitisation of services.Later in the day, the Centre held a stakeholder consultation with industry bodies at the Invest UP office. Besides Khera, the meeting was attended by Rahul Sharma, additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, and officials from DPIIT, NITI Aayog, the MSME ministry and Invest UP to gather industry feedback on the next phase of deregulation.Representatives from ASSOCHAM, FICCI, CII, PHD Chamber, IIA, Laghu Udyog Bharti and DICCI participated in the discussions, sharing industry feedback on simplifying regulations.
