PANAJI: Goa legislator Vijai Sardesai on Tuesday said he will move a private member’s bill for reserving 80% of jobs in the private sector for state residents.
Goa Forward Party chief and MLA Vijai Sardesi said he has again moved a private member’s bill for reservation to local residents
Sardesai, the president of the Goa Forward Party, moved a similar bill in 2022, when he argued that there was no reason why the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Goa shouldn’t back quotas for locals when the Haryana government led by Manohar Lal Khattar enacted a similar law in 2021.
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The Punjab and Haryana high court in November last year struck down Haryana’s law that reserved 75% private sector jobs, paying up to ₹30,000 a month, for local candidates. The high court said the law was unconstitutional, violated fundamental rights and held that notions about individual rights have to be in line with the text and spirit of the Constitution and not popular or majoritarian notions.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Sardesai accused the state government of being indifferent to the plight of the youth.
“@GovtofGoa’s appalling indifference, and sometimes active intervention to block #Goans in their own land is shocking and unacceptable. I’ll never back down from our demand of 80% jobs to Goans in private industries, and I’ve moved a Private Member’s Bill—for the second time!—to this effect,” Sardesai, the lone legislator of his party, said in the post.
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Goa industries minister Mauvin Godinho last year rejected attempts to legislate quotas for residents, saying employment of locals could be linked to incentives for industries.
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Goa industries minister Mauvin Godinho last year rejected attempts to legislate quotas for residents, saying employment of locals could be linked to incentives for industries.
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To be sure, chief minister Pramod Sawant was supportive of the demand for a law for reservation in the private sector in 2019 and had then sought six months to deliver on the assurance.
Gerard de Souza is a Special Correspondent based in Goa and has been reporting on and about issues concerning the state and the wider western coast of India for over 18 years. His wide range of stories covers politics, crime, environment and tourism-related concerns emerging from India’s smallest state. Born and brought up in Goa, he has a deep understanding of the former Portuguese enclave’s evolution from a laidback collection of idyllic villages that first drew flower power generation of counter culture enthusiasts to its shores to one that has become synonymous in Indian popular culture with an aspirational holiday, seeing the best (and worst) that holidayers have to offer. He also keenly follows criminal trials. Most notably, he covered the trial surrounding the killing of Scarlett Keeling, a British teenager found dead on Anjuna beach, and that of Danielle McLaughlin similarly killed in south Goa, among others. He authored the book ‘Crimes of Passion: When Desire Turns Deadly,’ chronicling cases of romance turning to rage and murder. A graduate of Goa University, he learnt the trade on the job and has experience on both the reporting and editorial sides of the profession. When not sniffing around for a worthy headline, he likes to spend time outdoors to help ensure his heart is always in the right place.
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