Breather for Ludhiana cycle industry as Centre gives 6 months to implement reflector law

The decision came after representatives of Ludhiana bicycle industry met Union minister of industry and commerce Piyush Goyal, his deputy Som Parkash and senior officials of the department in New Delhi on Tuesday, informed United Cycle Parts Manufactures Association (UCPMA) president DS Chawla. Punjab state BJP general secretary Jeevan Gupta was also present in the meeting.

In a major respite to protesting small-scale cycle and cycle-parts manufacturing industry, the Centre has granted a six-month relaxation for the implementation of decision mandating affixing of BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards)-certified reflectors on cycles. It has also reduced the application fee for Certificate for Conformity (CoC) by 80%.

The decision came after representatives of Ludhiana bicycle industry met Union minister of industry and commerce Piyush Goyal, his deputy Som Parkash and senior officials of the department in New Delhi on Tuesday, informed United Cycle Parts Manufactures Association (UCPMA) president DS Chawla. Punjab state BJP general secretary Jeevan Gupta was also present in the meeting.

Chawla added, “The application fee for Certificate for Conformity (COC) from Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has also been reduced by 80% for the industrialists.”

The small-scale industry has been protesting the government’s order for making BIS-certified reflectors compulsory on bicycles from January 1, 2023. The representatives, including the association’s president, had sat on a hunger strike last week. They had called it off after BJP leaders assured to resolve the matter.

The order specified that ISI-mark on reflectors is mandatory and license by reflector manufacturers and CoC by bicycle manufacturers respectively are to be taken as per BIS regulation.

BIS is now monitoring enforcement of the direction of committee, including at dealers’ stage through surveillance.