Kamal Nath asks industry

New Delhi, May 13 (UNI) If the industry does not voluntarily comes out with a satisfactory answer to the issue of all-inclusive growth, the government will have to look into ''other options including making reservation legal'', Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has said.

The Commerce and Industry Minister, who is mulling over an incentivised industrial policy for taking the SC/ST on board development, said the affirmative action as provided for in the Common Minimum Programme ''does not preclude reservation''.

Participating in the Devil's Advocate programme of the CNN-IBN, Mr Kamal Nath said the government is willing to consider the request, as put forth by CII Vice President Sunil Mittal for two years' time for affirmative action, provided the industry comes out with a concrete proposal.

The minister warned the industry that it will have to pay a heavy price if it does not respond to the call of the government to come out with an affirmative action plan for the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and all other backward sections of the society.

''One thing is sure that the growth has to be all-inclusive and it cannot be urban-centric and region-centric,'' he said adding that the proposed new industrial policy would offer fiscal benefits to the industries setting up units in those 60 districts of the country where more than 50 per cent of the population comes from the SC/STs.

Although Mr Kamal Nath is yet to discuss the proposed policy with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other colleagues, he is confident that the entire Cabinet would back him up.

''If it is logical and makes economic sense, why should anyone not support it,'' he asked.

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