Chandigarh, Apr 6 (KNN) The Punjab government has scrapped 479 compliances which were required earlier for seeking various approvals and renewals by industrialists, said Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan.

She said this, on Monday, while chairing a high-level meeting with the administrative secretaries and added, ''These compliances were part of a total 541 age-old mandatory approvals identified to be scrapped under Phase-I of reducing compliance burden by various departments.

She further informed that the state government submitted its action plan on the Union Government’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) portal on March 31, after doing away with this unnecessary paperwork.

Mahajan also directed the administrative secretaries to identify rules, regulations and archaic laws, which prescribe imprisonment as punishment for minor offences and to work towards decriminalising those regulations with provisions for financial penalties, if required.

Later, Secretaries apprised Mahajan that as part of Phase-II plan, 70 compliances have been identified across four areas that require amendments to the existing laws, implementation of which is underway and needs to be completed by August 15.