The Hindu Business Line : KVIC Act in for changes: Minister<br>Cabinet may consider professional management

PROFESSIONAL management of Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), which was dissolved in October 2004, will be among the issues to be considered by the Union Cabinet when the proposals concerning revamping of KVIC are placed before it, according to Mr Mahabir Prasad, Minister for Small-Scale Industries and Agro & Rural Industries.

The Government is also seized of the issue of complaints of delay in reimbursing the rebate offered by KVIC units during notified seasons and will work out a mechanism to avoid the delay, he said.

Speaking to newspersons after visiting along with members of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee a few SSI units in coir, wet grinder and motor pump sectors in Coimbatore district, Mr Prasad said the expert committee constituted to go into the functioning of KVIC had submitted its report in April and a detailed proposal to amend the KVIC Act has been prepared.

Asked whether he would go for professional management of KVIC, the Minister said an expert committee was constituted to suggest ways of revamping KVIC, which included making it professionally more competent, to suggest new programmes and modification to the existing programmes and changes in the organisation structure. The Government was working on that and a draft Cabinet note was under circulation and hence the details of the proposed changes could not be revealed now. After the Cabinet gives its nod, a draft Bill to amend the KVIC Act would be introduced in Parliament.

Asked whether the upward revision of the investment limit for the SSI units would not hit the tiny and small units, Mr Prasad said the Small and Medium Enterprises Development (SMED) Bill envisages classification of units as small scale if they meet certain investment criteria. There was no room for apprehension that SSI units with less than Rs 1 crore investment would be hit.

He was confident of meeting the target of creating 44 lakh jobs in the small-scale sector during the Tenth Plan. By the end of 2003-04, 22 lakh jobs had been created and during 2004-05, more than 12 lakh jobs have been created. The Minister said nearly 350 industrial clusters across the country have been identified and 80 of them have been taken up for development that would be completed within three years. In 2004-05, the assistance provided to these clusters was about Rs 7 crore and in the current year, Rs 10 crore has been allocated. They cover diverse industries such as leather, pottery, machine tool, hand tool etc. Regarding timely reimbursement of the rebate to societies under KVIC, he said there was logic behind the discount scheme - rebate or Marketing Development Assistance (MDA). It was not possible for the Khadi sector, that provided employment to more than 8 lakh artisans, to compete with the mill sector. The Government was providing a sort of employment guarantee support to the poor people.

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