The Centre has been harping on reforms, but it seems to have forgotten the three high-profile committees, including the one headed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, set up for the very same purpose.
The committees are among the four empowered sub-committees of the National Development Council formed in last March to facilitate trade, investment and simplify governance issues. They have not met even once till date.
The sub-committees were a follow-up on the prime minister's announcement after the National Development Council meeting on December 21 last year to ensure convergence of views among states on key reform issues.
Accordingly, the committee on removal of barriers to internal trade, headed by Vajpayee, was supposed to smoothen inter-state and intra-state movements of commercial vehicles, look into reform of revenue administration including valued-added tax and elimination of Essential Commodities Act.
The sub-committee on governance reforms, with special reference to e-governance, is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani. The committee's focus included implementation of judicial, urban sector and governance reforms.
Two other committees, one on promoting an investor-friendly climate and the other on financial and administrative empowerment of Panchayati Raj institutions, are headed by cabinet ministers for commerce and rural development respectively.
All the four committees include several Cabinet ministers and state chief ministers.
While there was no definite time-frame for finalisation of the recommendations or their implementation, the committees were to meet at least once every quarter to ensure that the agenda laid down in the Tenth Plan was expedited.
However, only the sub-committee on Panchayati Raj has met twice so far. The committee on promoting the investor-friendly climate was mandated to identify major controls and procedures, which discourage investment.
The committee was also supposed to provide a time-bound action plan to dismantle such barriers, simplify interface between investors and regulatory agencies and lay down major milestones.
The sub-committee on Panchayati Raj had also been asked to evolve a comprehensive framework of policies, procedures and regulations to facilitate investment including measures to encourage states.
The committee on Panchayati Raj Institutions, among other things, was to work out modalities for strengthening the financial domain of the PRIs.
It was entrusted with overseeing transfer of resources from the Centre and state governments and work out a mechanism for linking central assistance to states for the empowerment of PRIs.
