The Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills Association appealed to the State government to convene a meeting to weed out “anomalies” in the Tami Nadu Hostels and Homes for Women and Children (Regulations) Act, said K. Venkatachalam, Chief Advisor of the association.
Talking to media persons here on Monday, he said that several anomalies were in the new Act. Some of the provisions would force mills to close down the existing hostels. “Even before promulgation of the Act, hostels in several spinning mills were under the jurisdiction of tahsildars. Now, the scope of issuing licence, registration and monitoring of mill hostels had been brought under the control of Collectors. Registration was not required for mill hostels. While framing rules, this provision was not considered and registration was made compulsory even for hostels in mills. The Act was also silent on how the offences provided in Section 20-Part-VI could be tried and punished.”
The inspectors to enforce the Act were also not notified till now, except the power to appoint a team to make a visit by Collector, he said. Most of the hostels, situated within the mill premises, were functioning as per guidelines of Departments of Labour Welfare, Public Health and Revenue. All procedures introduced in new Act had already been followed by spinning mills.
Hence, the new Act was nothing but a duplication of various procedures under the Tamil Nadu Public Buildings Licensing Act 1965, he said.
