CHANDIGARH: The Haryana assembly on Thursday passed a bill providing for 75% reservation of factory and other blue-collar jobs for local candidates, sealing the BJP led government’s argument that an influx of migrants competing for limited employment opportunities strains infrastructure and leads to proliferation of slums.
The Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Bill 2020 is applicable only to new private-sector job openings and, hence, won’t affect outsiders already employed in factories and other industrial units in the state.
All jobs with a monthly starting salary of below Rs 50,000 come under the ambit of the proposed law. Privately managed companies, societies, trusts, limited-liability partnership firms and jointly ventures based within the state and employing 10 or more people can hire only up to 10% of the approved local quota from one district.
Employers may claim exemption whenever an adequate number of local candidates with the desired skills, qualifications or proficiency are not available.
The penalty for contravention of these provisions ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000.
Tabling the Bill in the assembly, deputy CM Dushyant Chautala, who is also the labour and employment minister, said the state had been swamped by people from outside looking for employment.
“This has led to environmental and health issues, affecting both the quality of life and livelihood. Giving preference to local candidates in low-paying jobs is socially, economically and environmentally desirable.”
JJP promised 75% quota for Haryana youths
In its manifesto for the 2019 assembly elections, Dushyant’s Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) had promised 75% job reservation for local youth, who constitute a sizeable chunk of the nearly 1.8 crore voters. The promise was later included in the common minimum programme of the BJP-JJP coalition government.
Dushyant had faced criticism from the opposition for his failure to table the Bill even after completion of a year of the government. If and when the Bill gets the governor’s assent, it will be notified as a law.