CM: Can’t make it must for private cos to reserve jobs for Goans

PANAJI: Chief minister Pramod Sawant told the assembly on Thursday that it was not possible for the government to make it mandatory for private sector to reserve jobs for Goans.
“It is against the provisions of the Constitution,” Sawant said.
Referring to the recent move by the Andhra Pradesh government to reserve 75% of private jobs in factories and industrial units for local youth, Sawant said: “Andhra Pradesh has recently brought such a bill making it mandatory to employ people from the state. It is not yet a law. But it is not as per the Constitution and I am sure it will be struck down.”
However, he said the government will provide incentives to industries that employ Goans. “The policy is already ready with industries minister Vishwajit Rane and it will be implemented soon,” he said.
The chief minister also said that it will provide facilities like transport to industries to assist them in employing Goans. “The issue of unemployment will be addressed within the next six months,” he said.
Sawant said the government will ensure that all data will be collected from the private companies operating in Goa to see how many Goans have been employed by these firms. The government will also collect details of employees working in the casinos, he said.
He accepted leader of opposition Digambar Kamat’s suggestion that some mechanism must be drawn which will drive entrepreneurs to give preference to Goan employees.
Sawant said he will also study a notification which Congress MLA Luizinho Faleiro said he had brought during his tenure as the chief minister. Faleiro said some tax breaks were given to those employing Goans as per the notification.
Though labour minister Jennifer Monserrate said there are 1.25 lakh Goans on the live register of employment exchanges in Goa, Sawant said the number was too high as many are already working with the private sector.
Sawant, who had said a week earlier in his budget speech that he would revisit the IT policy and revise it, did a U-turn and said there won’t be any change in it.
“We will take the same IT policy forward,” Sawant said, to apprehensions expressed by former IT minister Rohan Khaunte that there are attempts to alter the policy by the government.