KOLKATA: The Mamata Banerjee government has taken up an initiative for a complete overhaul of Silpa Sathi Portal, which is the online single window platform to extend all necessary support to entrepreneurs.
The initiative has been taken up as the platform will play a crucial role in ensuring further investment. "It will take another five to six months for the complete overhaul. Existing glitches will become things of the past," said Chairman of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and West Bengal Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBIIDC), Rajiva Sinha.He was speaking at an interactive session organised by CII. "We have a clear mandate for the single window system. Nobody can be referred to any other place. Once an issue has been raised, it becomes the issue of the Silpa Sathi team and not of the individual, who approached with the issue. Job of our Silpa Sathi team is to contact all concerned and address the same," he added.
The single window system was introduced in 2011-12 by WBIDC. Initially, there was no online system and people had to approach physically, where officers from different departments used to come and sit at the single window. In 2017-18, the Single Window Act was passed by the state Assembly giving structural stability to the arrangement of the system.
"In this system, every stake holder should be sharing the same platform. Now, different departments use different software. It becomes a challenge for Silpa Sathi. Integration is needed and it can be done easily after the complete overhaul of the system," Sinha said. This comes at a time priority is being given to bolster trust between government and the industry players in the state. According to Sinha, the department aims at making Silpa Sathi a one-stop platform for all incentives from industrial parks to land related queries and incentives.