New Delhi, Mar 25: The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed a bill to provide for the regulation of boilers, safety of life and property of persons from the danger of explosions of steam-boilers and uniformity in registration.
The Boilers Bill, 2024, seeks to repeal the century-old Boilers Act, 1923.
The bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha in December last year. Now it will be sent for assent of the President of India.
The bill, which has provisions to ensure the safety of persons working inside a boiler and promoting ease of doing business, was cleared in the Lower House by a voice vote.
The legislation provides that repair of boilers should be undertaken by qualified and competent persons.
Piloting the bill, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said several colonial-era redundant and obsolete provisions have been removed and the bill seeks to do away with the colonial mindset.
“We have made the bill simple and readable,” he said.
Allaying concerns of certain members, he said the legislation is not taking away powers of the state governments.
None of the rights of states has been taken away with today’s law, the minister assured the members.
The opposition members walked out during Goyal’s reply when he was criticising the previous Congress-led government for delaying this law.
The minister further said that members should not link boilers with the Bhopal gas tragedy.
The similar provisions which are at different places in the Boilers Act, 1923 have been grouped together in six chapters for easier reading and understanding of the Act.
All the functions/powers of the central, state governments and Central Boilers Board have been enumerated in detail to avoid any confusion.
Out of the seven offences, to ensure safety of boilers and personnel dealing with boilers, in four major offences which may result in loss of life and property, criminal penalties are retained.
For other offences, the provision is being made for fiscal penalty.
Moreover, for all non-criminal offences, fine has been converted into penalty to be levied through executive mechanism instead of courts as existed earlier.
The bill will enhance safety as specific provisions have been made to ensure the safety of persons working inside a boiler and that repair of boiler is undertaken by qualified and competent persons.
The re-enacted legislation meets the current requirements of stakeholders including industry, personnel working on/with boilers and implementers in the country.
According to the commerce and industry ministry, it has been drafted as per modern drafting practices to give more clarity to the provisions of the Bill.
For ease of doing business, the bill will benefit boiler users including those in the MSME sector as provisions related to the decriminalisation have been incorporated in the Bill.
The Boilers Act, 1923 was comprehensively amended in 2007 by the Indian Boilers (Amendment) Act, 2007 wherein inspection and certification by independent third party inspecting authorities was introduced.
However, on further examination of the existing Act, a need has been felt for review of the Act and also to incorporate the decriminalised provisions in consonance with the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023.
“The existing Act has, accordingly, been reviewed wherein redundant /obsolete provisions have been omitted and certain substantive enabling provisions have been made for the rules and regulations which were not earlier provided,” the ministry said.
Certain new definitions have also been incorporated and few existing definitions have been amended so as to give more clarity to the provisions of the Bill.
On the demand of some members for inclusion of environment norms in the bill, Goyal said environment related issues are dealt with other laws.
Participating in the discussion on the bill, Congress member Kalyan Kale said that no provisions are there in the bill for environment related issues.
He requested the minister to take views of all parties and re-introduce the bill.
Anand Bhadauriya (Samajwadi Party) alleged that the bill is aiming to help only big businesses and it would strangle small entities.
He also also asked the minister to seek views of other political parties.
M K Anand (DMK) said that boilers are also responsible for pollution and to deal with that some provisions should be there on that. (PTI)
