rediff.com: BJP seeks protection of small-scale sector

The Bharatiya Janata Party Sunday made a strong plea for protection of the small-scale sector and a transparent approach to disinvestment so that the interests of the workers in public sector enterprises are safeguarded.

In its economic resolution taken up for discussion on the opening day of the two-day national council under the presidentship of Bangaru Laxman in Nagpur, the party suggested a 13-point action plan to streamline the economy with the guiding principles being self-reliance and decentralisation.

It called for speeding up efforts to increase government revenue and ''drastically curb unproductive government expenditure. There is a need to reduce the size of departments and offices that are either over-staffed or obsolete, both in the Centre and the states.''

The resolution emphasised on the need to ''pre-actively defend India's interests before the World Trade Organisation by cutting down inter-ministerial procedures and delays and enact laws in this regard,'' and stressed on the need for special cells in the ministries of agriculture and amall scale industry to continuously monitor the production and market situation and ensure effective anti-dumping measures on their own.

It appealed to the government to assess the impact of globalisation in general and liberalisation of imports in particular on the country's economy and take corrective steps in time.

The resolution urged the government to prepare a crash programme to remove all bottlenecks in power generation, transmission and distribution with the active involvement of state governments.

It drew the government's attention to the challenges that the small scale sector is facing after the removal of quantitative restrictions on imports or the commitment to the WTO made by the previous Congress government.

''Unless effective steps are taken, the removal of QRs is likely to have an adverse affect on many domestic producers, especially in agriculture and small scale industries,'' it said.

The resolution expressed concern over the slow pace of infrastructure development saying it ''continues to be an area of major concern.'' While commending the bold decisions to reform the telecom sector and promote information technology, it said the same pace was required for other infrastructure sectors like power, roads, railways and ports.

Endorsing the government's steps in disinvestment, it said that ''effective regulatory mechanisms are needed before the government reduces its presence in a vital sector.''

Another important area of internal liberalisation where immediate action was needed was the tardy pace of removal of unnecessary restrictions and controls that allows the inspector-raj to continue and throttle businesses especially the small ones, it said.

It called for removal of all restrictions on the nation-wide movement of agricultural products by amending the Essential Commodities Act and the starting of a food-for-work programme in collaboration with state governments.

The resolution suggested that the government should have a package of effective measures to protect and rejuvenate the small-scale and cottage industries in view of the WTO regime.

It wanted a new policy for the development and modernisation of Indian Railways with a substantial role for the private sector and the state governments, and this should be immediately formulated.


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