Licence Order Fulfil Promise to Voters: Mayor

Anyone looking to set up a hotel, swimming pool, amusement park, or discothèque in Delhi will no longer have to make the rounds of Delhi Police headquarters to obtain a business licence.

- HT Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Anyone looking to set up a hotel, swimming pool, amusement park, or discoth èque in Delhi will no longer have to make the rounds of Delhi Police headquarters to obtain a business licence. In a major regulatory overhaul, the city government has scrapped the decades-old requirement of securing a police no-objection certificate (NOC) for seven categories of commercial trades.

Announcing the reform at a press conference on Monday, chief minister Rekha Gupta described the move as "historic" and said it would streamline approvals for thousands of businesses, while allowing the police to focus on core duties like crime prevention, women's safety, and public order.

"This reform will benefit around 25,000 establishments and over 1.5 to 2 million workers. It's a win for both ease of doing business and strengthening law and order," Gupta said at the Delhi Secretariat.

The announcement followed a directive issued on June 19 by lieutenant governor VK Saxena, which removed the mandatory Delhi Police licensing clearance for seven types of businesses—hotels, guest houses, restaurants, swimming pools, discoth èques, video game parlours, amusement parks, and auditoriums.