Panaji: The Centre sent at six-member team of officers from the cabinet secretariat and NITI Aayog to take stock of Goa’s progress under phase-II of the compliance reduction and deregulation exercise. The exercise was launched in Jan with the objective of further reducing the compliance burden towards ease of doing business and ease of living.Inland waterways authority of India chairperson Sunil Paliwal, who heads the taskforce for Goa, met with Goan industrialists and govt officials to discuss some of the challenges that Goa has identified regarding the identified priority areas.The priority areas are deregulation of land use, simplified construction approvals, and quicker permission for utilities and power.“Now, the Centre is proposing to do away entirely with any law or regulation dealing with change of land use. The objective is to ensure that in the state, there should be no provision under any law requiring permission for change in land use,” said an official.A key focus of the reforms is on construction norms, compliance by builders, and fire safety norms, arguing that a ‘one size fits all’ approach may not work for all states.Phase-II also recommended that Goa considers removing all references to the National Building Code from building bylaws, building plan mandates, fire and life safety acts and rules, and replaces them with liberalised norms. “The state may consider amending their building bylaws, remove all height-based restrictions for buildings like hospitals and industries in line with global norms,” the document says.Goa has to submit a status report on the reforms by Aug 31 to the Centre about the progress on the reforms. Govt sources said that some of the reforms are likely to be introduced in the Goa legislative assembly’s monsoon session.The delegation led by Paliwal also discussed proposed reforms and strategic measures for consideration in phase-III to further advance compliance reduction and deregulation efforts in Goa.
