The Hindu Business Line : Govt forms sub-group for labour law flexibility in textile sector

Looking ahead
The issues before the panel include a proposal for increasing the hours in a shift to 12 from nine and also increasing the working hours in a week to 60 hours from 48
The sector needs investment of Rs 1,40,000 crore between 2005 and 2010

Mr Shankarsinh Vaghela, Union Minister for Textiles

New Delhi , May 24

In order to address the contentious issue of introducing flexible labour laws in the textiles industry, the Centre has set up a sub-group within a Group of Ministers for the sector.

"A group comprising the Commerce Minister, Textile Minister, Labour Minister, State Chief Ministers and trade unions has been formed to specifically look into this issue. It is expected to have its first meeting within a month," the Textile Minister, Mr Sankersinh Vaghela, said here on Wednesday. The issues before the panel include a proposal for increasing the hours in a shift to 12 from nine at present and also increasing the working hours in a week to 60 hours from 48, he said.

Mr Vaghela said the group would also look at a proposal for allowing textile units to hire workers on contract for a short duration for executing seasonal orders. The industry has been demanding flexible labour laws due to the seasonal nature of the textile and garment export business.

Turnaround

The Minister said the textile industry had now turned around and is emerging as a "sunrise sector" now.

"In 2004-05, the investment in the textile sector was Rs 14,850 crore, which increased to Rs 30,032 crore in 2005-06. The sector needs investment of Rs 1,40,000 crore between 2005 and 2010, and this target will be achieved," Mr Vaghela said. He said much of this investment would flow through the Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP), which was launched in August last year by merging the Apparel Parks for Export Scheme and the Textile Infrastructure Development Scheme.

Textile parks

The SITP had proposed to build 25 large textile parks of international standards by 2007, entailing investment of Rs 18,500 crore.

"So far, nine such parks have been sanctioned by the Textile Ministry. There is a lot of demand for setting up these parks and the number of parks sanctioned can be increased to 40 or so," Mr Vaghela said.

He said each park should have an investment of a minimum Rs 100 crore and would be spread over an area of 75 acres, employing at least 15,000 jobs, he said.

He said in the last two years, the textile sector has created 20 lakh jobs and by 2010, another 120 lakh jobs would be created. Mr Vaghela said textile exports are expected to touch $19.6 billon this fiscal, up from $17 billion in 2005-06 and $13.56 billion in 2004-05.

The Minister said the Centre has set a target of $40 billion for 2010. He also said that a Technology Mission for Jute would be launched next year at Rs 2,000 crore.

The government is also planning to launch technology missions for silk and wool, he added.

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