New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS): Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Monday said that he has approved the proposal for 29 more establishments to operate on a 24X7 basis in the city, taking the figure to 498, during the last one year.

Saxena has given a major boost to shops and business establishments proposing to operate 24x7 since he took over as Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor in May last year.

There had been a lull in such approvals 2016 onwards with the first proposal getting cleared in 2022, after 2016.

"The establishments approved today include Hotel and Restaurants, Food, Grocery, Dairy and FMCG Products, Readymade Garments, Provision Stores, Logistics and Warehouses, Sports Goods. Saxena has been pushing for promoting ease of doing business and had set the ball rolling by approving in October last, 314 such applications and in June this year he approved a file proposing such exemptions to 155 establishments. Taking the momentum further, the Lieutenant Governor, who had directed the Labour Department to expeditiously develop a ‘Single Window System’ as an integrated portal for granting approval of applications related to shops and business establishments proposing to operate 24x7 in the Capital, cleared fresh proposals for 29 such applications," the LG office said.

It said that with these 29 new approvals, Saxena has given the go ahead to 498 such establishments by way of exemptions under Sections 14, 15 and 16 of the Delhi Shops and Establishments Act, that enables commercial establishments to operate on a 24X7 basis, subject to certain conditions that entail welfare of the workers and security.

While approving the latest proposal of the Labour Department, the Lieutenant Governor noted that his direction to expedite the process of developing a ‘Single Window System’ for the registration, amendment and exemption, has already been taken up with the Industries Department which is the Nodal Department for the SWP.