State Draft Retail Trade Policy 2015 , a shift from socialistic trade policy to Capitalism
B C Bhartiya Addressing the traders
Nagpur: Reacting heavily on Draft of Retail Trade Policy of Maharashtra 2015, B.C.Bhartia National President Confederation of All India Traders said that there is a clear shift from preamble of constitution of India which spells about socialist Democratic Republic. If the contents of Draft of Retail Trade policy Maharashtra 2015 is read it will be evident that there is clear move towards capitalist form of Retail Trade. Up till now retail trade was under domain of consumer affairs dept. of government but now we see an attempt to systematically shift it to Industries dept. said Bhartia.
B.C. Bhartia was explaining the salient features of Draft of Retail Trade Policy of Maharashtra 2015 in a workship organized by Swadeshi Jagran Manch. Bhartia said that in State Trade policy objective, the direction is towards accelerate investment flow to under developed regions of the state and to create employment opportunities especially in rural areas and leverage Retail Trade as a tool for socio-economic development of the state. However Bhartia said that if the policy is read in correct prospective, the policy is focused to acquire prime urban areas of state with the help of Govt. and hand over the same to corporate Retailers.
Bhartia Said that the Trade Policy mentions about appointment of Nodal Officer from industries Dept., Relaxation of shop timing under shops & Establishment act, filing of consolidated returns under 13 different labour laws, Inclusion of Food and Grocery Business in Essential services, Relaxation of stocking limit under Essential Commodities Act, expenditure to train employees under skill development program at Govt. expenses, Relaxation of Development Control Regulations like providing Higher Ground Coverage, increasing floor to floor heights , relaxation in parking norms. Additional FSI, increasing Building height restrictions, exemption from APMC Regulation including non payment of APMC cess, formulation of clear operation guidance lines for Mathadi Act, Rationalization of Power Tariff and allowing open access to source Energy, allowing these Retailers to set up their warehouses on agriculture land and finally as a last nail in coffin of traditional retail traders there is a provision for constitution of Empowerment committee comprising of Chief Secretary as chairman and Principal secretaries of various departments as members. The only non govt. official is nominee of Retailers Association of India (RAI). RAI is an organization of Corporate Retailers with people like Kishore Biyani, Noval Tata , Shaswat Goenka etc. as directors.
Ajay Patki of Swadeshi Jagran Manch concluding the discussion said that the matter is of great concern. This policy will promote corporate retail at the cost of traditional retailers. Kishore Dharashivkar said that the traditional traders wanted solution to its problems but govt. had no time to address it, it is unfortunate that when corporates raise the issues govt. come forward to address the same and is trying to handover well settled Retail Trade to foreign companies via Indian corporates. It appears that policy makers have divided the state into “India” and “Bharat”. Prabhakar Deshmukh said that lively hood of crores of retailers will be at stake. Mohan Deo said that if the proposed facilities is extended to existing retail traders than there may not be need for corporate retailers to enter.
It was decided that an awareness compain in all forms be launched which includes press notes and meetings in each market place regarding issues & concerns emerging out of this policy.
These who were prominently present were Dhananjay Bhide, Dr. Sudhakar Ingole, R.N.Patil, Ashutosh Pathak, Anu Upadhya, Rajkumar Gupta, Ramesh Umathe, Ravindra Gupta, Ashutosh Pathak, Pravin Mase Shah, Ramesh Patil, Asha Pande, Sangeeta Khandelwal informs General Secretary Farooque Akbani.
