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Haryana reserves 75% private jobs for state’s residents
The Haryana Assembly on Thursday passed a bill to give 75% reservation in the private sector to job seekers from the state, amid strong objections by Congress and Jannayak Janata Party MLAs.
The Haryana Assembly on Thursday passed a bill to give 75% reservation in the private sector to job seekers from the state, amid strong objections by Congress and Jannayak Janata Party MLAs.
The Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Bill, 2020 – moved by deputy chief minister and JJP leader Dushyant Chautala -- aims to provide 75 % of the new employment to local candidates for jobs having salary of less than Rs 50,000 per month in privately-owned companies, societies, trusts, limited liability partnership firms, partnership firms etc. situated in Haryana.
Chautala tweeted that the promise made to the state’s youth now stood fulfilled. “Today our promise to lakhs of youth of Haryana has been fulfilled and now Haryanvi youth will have 75 per cent of jobs in the private sector,” he said.
Only 10 per cent of the recruitment by a company needs to be from the district in which it is located – the rest of the quota can be filled from other districts in the state. The quota will initially apply for 10 years, according to the bill which now needs the assent of the state governor to become law.
Giving 75 per cent reservation in private sector jobs was a key poll promise made by Chautala’s JJP, which is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s coalition partner in the state.
Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the bill would go a long way in providing employment to local youth.
Opposing the bill, JJP MLA from Narnaund Ram Kumar Gautam said that the proposed law was divisive. “This is a free country and we are one. We do not want divisions. People from Haryana have the freedom to work anywhere in the country and so have the people from Bihar or Maharashtra or any other state. Biharis contribute a lot as far as our farming is concerned. How can we stop them from gaining employment in Haryana? This is a behuda (inane) Bill,” Gautam said.
Congress’s Rohtak MLA BB Batra also said that the bill was discriminatory. “The BJP talks of one nation and here is a Bill which is patently discriminatory and divisive. A similar law enacted by Andhra Pradesh has also been challenged in the high court and will be struck down. This Bill is also unconstitutional and will be struck down by the courts,” Batra said.
Senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda objected to the option with companies to recruit only 10 per cent of their employees from one district. “The discretion given to the employer to pick a maximum 10% local candidates from a district should be done away with,’’ Hooda said.
Another MLA from the Congress, Neeraj Sharma, also called the 10% restriction unfair. “People of Faridabad have given their agricultural land to set up industries and they also bore the harmful effects of industrialization. So why there should be a 10% cap on employing them.
