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MP govt announces reforms for ease of business, Congress calls them exploitative
Chouhan announced several measures taken by his government to boost investments and ’reform’ labour laws
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday announced major reforms including single-day clearance for licences required under labour laws with an aim to increase the ease of operation for industries and to invite fresh investments.
Chouhan described his government’s decision to reduce the period for grant of licences or registrations under various labour laws as “revolutionary”.
“Registrations/licenses under the different labour laws will be issued in just one day. Earlier, this time period was 30 days. As a result of this, the process of issuing registration/licenses for factories, shops, contractors, bidi manufacturers, motor transport workers etc will be completed in one day,” he added.
In another measure, Chouhan announced that the license under the Contract Labour Act will now be issued for the entire period of the contract instead of just one calendar year, as was the case.
“The process of issuing registration/license will be online. With a view to encouraging startups, a provision has been made for one-time registration and the provision for renewal has been done away with,” the CM said.
According to the CM, another provision has been made to maintain a single register instead of 61 registers under the labour laws and to file a single return instead of 13 returns. Self-certification will suffice for filing the return, he added.
Factories have also been exempted from inspections for a period of three months under the Factory Act. The owners will be allowed to have a third-party inspection by the inspectors of their own choice. Establishments employing less than 50 workers have been excluded from inspection in various labour laws. Now, inspection will be possible only with the permission of the labour commissioner and on the basis of complaints, he said.
Chouhan also said that the duration of shifts in factories during the ongoing coronavirus crisis has been increased from 8 hours to 12 hours.
Congress has opposed the amendments terming it exploitative.
Party MLA Hiralal Alawa said, “The amendments will give enough powers to factory owners to exploit the labourers at will as they will have no fear of any inspection or inquiry. The amendments mean the labourers will be treated as bonded labourers and they will not be able to seek justice from the labour courts or it will take years for them to get justice given the complexities involved.”
In another coronavirus related development, the MP government said the shops in the non-Covid areas can now remain open from 6 am till midnight. Earlier they were allowed to operate from 8 am to 10 pm daily.
