New Delhi: With BJP-led NDA government looking to boost the manufacturing sector, the Centre is planning to exempt the proposed mega manufacturing zones, National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZ) from certain restrictive labour laws.
This issue was recently raised by the commerce and industry ministry with their labour ministry. The issue of exempting NIMZs from certain provisions of the Contract Labour Act was discussed during a meeting.
It was felt that certain provisions of the labour laws are impacting the growth of manufacturing sector in the country.
Under the proposal, workers in any unit in the NIMZ may be removed without notice or compensation, if the employer provides them with alternative employment in the same zone at the same pay and conditions of work.
Indian Inc has been demanding a review of the labour laws in the country. They have been blaming the fall in manufacturing sector on rigid labour laws of the country.
In fact, National Manufacturing Competit-iveness Council had blamed rigid labour laws for declining manufacturing output and poor employment creation.
It had asked the government to replace the dated laws with new ones to suit the needs of modern business.
During 2013-14 the manufacturing sector saw a contraction of 0.7 per cent. This is because the impact of weak domestic demand outweighed the benefit from rising exports. Manufacturing sector has seen a contraction for the first time since 1991-92. UPA government had framed the National
Manufacturing Policy (NMP), with the aimed of raising the share of manufacturing to 25 per cent of GDP by 2022 from the current 16 per cent.
The NMP envisages setting up of NIMZs, which are industrial townships, benchmarked to the best manufacturing hubs in the world. NIMZs are conceptualised as integrated industrial townships of at least 50 sq km (5,000 hectares) with state-of- the-art infrastructure.
The government had notified several NIMZs, including one each in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh; two in Rajasthan and three in Maharashtra.
