Haryana CM Khattar non-committal on enacting law for pvt job quota to locals

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday sprung a surprise when he sounded non-committal on the prospect of enacting a legislation to provide 75% reservation to Haryana youth in private sector jobs. Though the chief minister was emphatic that government will go ahead with the proposed quota in private sector jobs, the move will become a non-starter in the absence of a legislation to back it.

A pre-poll promise of BJP’s post-poll ally Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), the proposed quota in private sector jobs, if implemented through legislation, will be touted as a major triumph for BJP’s coalition partner. The BJP in its assembly poll manifesto had also made a near similar commitment of giving special incentive to industries providing over 95% jobs to the local residents.

The council of ministers had on January 31 deferred a proposal to approve a draft bill and referred it to the law secretary for vetting following prolonged deliberations among the cabinet members. “The move to introduce reservation for local youth in private sector jobs is on the lines of the law enacted by YS Jaganmohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh. The proposal though has the potential to upset the investors. In Andhra also, the move has been termed regressive,’’ officials said.

When asked about the fate of the proposed law, Khattar, who was speaking to journalists on Friday, said he can neither respond in the affirmative nor the negative (Mainey iske liye haan bhi nahi ki aur naa bhi nahi ki). Khattar’s remarks left the bureaucrats surprised since the draft bill, they said, was is in an advanced stage of vetting and will soon be ready for being circulated among the legislators.

The chief minister also made a reference to hiring unskilled workers by the industry while talking about the private job quota, thus indicating that the proposed job quota could only for the unskilled workers. “It will not be mandatory for the industry and enterprise to implement the quota. Also, if the industry was not able to get 75% workers from Haryana, they will be at liberty to hire from outside the state,’’ the chief minister said. Surprisingly, deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala, who was sitting next to Khattar, did not intervene.

The state government already has similar job quota provisions in place which were hardly enforced. For instance, the applicant industrialist while entering into an agreement with the director, Town and Country Planning, to change the existing use of land in a controlled area has to give an undertaking that he shall give at least 75% employment to the domiciles of Haryana where the posts are not of technical nature and shall furnish a quarterly statement on employment. Even the consultation paper on Haryana’s industrial investment and business promotion policy-2015 spoke about incentives to units employing minimum 75% semi-skilled/unskilled workers from Haryana.