Women employees in the retail trade will be permitted to work beyond 10 p.m. after taking care of all the safety precautions on par with the service sector in the proposed new retail policy being formulated by the Government.
Also on the anvil are simplification of labour laws, food & grocery to be included in essential services. A nodal officer is to be appointed to facilitate single-window clearance in the policy expected to boost Telangana’s position in the retail trade within the country. It also envisages creation of more employment opportunities for the youth, according to the Industries and Commerce Secretary Arvind Kumar here on Friday.
Draft guidelines of the policy were deliberated here on Friday by a committee of senior officials led by Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma with others from Industries, Municipal Administration, Labour and Home. The new retail policy would be allowing the enterprises to undertake stocking and inventory management in the early hours. The enterprise concerned can undertake their logistics and supply purposes to meet necessary operational requirements.
Mr. Kumar said retail enterprises will be given the option for self-certification and filing of consolidated annual returns under various Acts administered by the Labour Department. Apart from looking into various departmental issues which needed to be addressed, the meeting in principal agreed to establish retail entertainment zones including for kids and warehouses on public private partnership basis, and to recognize distribution centres on par with the service industry.
A detailed statement said that retail enterprises can self certify based on existing regulations for fixing sky sign in and out of the premises of the retail stores subject to payment of requisite fees as applicable. Other incentives being considered are relaxation of stocking limit under the Essential Commodities Act, human resources and skill development in retail enterprise.Special chief secretary Municipal Administration and Urban Development M.G. Gopal, Principal Secretaries - Ajay Mishra, Rajiv Trivedi, Commissioner Industries Manick Raj and other officials attended the meeting.
