The announcement would be made at an all India conference organised by the ministry here, officials of the ministry of small-scale industry conveyed this to the representatives of Laghu Udyog Bharti (LUB).

Sudarshan Sareen, LUB national president, SS Aggarwal, its vice-president and Vishwa Mitter Bahl, former president told reporters here on Monday that the government should prepare a white paper and set up a high powered national commision for SSI's to monitor the implementation of government policies and to safeguard their interests.

The LUB has submitted a memorandum to home minister LK Advani, who is also chairman of the group of ministers set up to study the SP Gupta group report on small-scale industries. A copy of it was also given to Vasundhra Raje Scindia, minister of state for small scale industries.

Sareen said the information received on SSI's is alarming. ``More and more units are getting sick. Some have closed down'', he said. There are provisions in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that if certain items are reserved for indigenous industries and if due to imports the industries are in danger, then the country could impose restrictions on imports. India has not used these provisions to safeguard its industries. On the contrary 714 items, mainly consumer goods, have been put in the oper general list (OGL). ``This is indecent haste, to open the floodgates of foreign goods,'' he said.

The report of the study group if implemented would harm the SSI's. He asked the home minister not to implement policy decisions without giving small-scale representatives a hearing.

Continuation of reservation for SSIs and not increasing the investment limit of this sector from the present level of Rs 1 crore were other demands of the LUB, he said.

Sareen said medium sized industries should not be tagged with SSI's.The inclusion of units having say Rs 10 crore investment in the SSI list, will distort and destory the identity of the small-scale sector.

At present there are 812 items earmarked for the SSI sector. The high powered inter-ministerial group is considering a proposal to dereserve garments, leather and toys from the SSI list.

He said the present MRTPC Act should be given more teeth to safeguard the SSI units from the misuse of dominance by the large-scale units."The MRTPC Act is not sufficient to stop the expolitation of SSI by the big Indian and foreign units who lower their prices to tire out the ssi units and later increase them with impunity," he said.

He also claimed that the government policies were often changed to suit the interests of the large-scale units.

"When ice-cream was dereserved Hindustan Lever immediately entered the sector totally wiping out the small scale industries units. Similarly, when the investment limit was increased from Rs 1 crore to Rs 3 crore many large scale units registered themselves as SSI units and claimed benefits reserved for SSI," he said.

The association in its memorandum also demanded imposition of anti-dumping duties on certain items in which the country was being threatened by cheaper imports from countries like China and Nepal.