Industry turns down government proposal on job reservation

India Inc through presidents of the three biggest industry lobbies in the country, CII, FICCI and Assocham have told the Prime Minist er's Office that they would not be able to reserve 5 per cent jobs for people from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

Principal secretary to the prime minister, had last month, called a meeting of the chamber chiefs to discuss whether they would ask their members to reserve jobs for the disadvantaged sections, but the chiefs Hari Bhartia, Rajan Mittal and Swati Piramal of CII FICCI and Assocham have rejected the idea.

They companies would do their best to improve employability of SCs and STs but quotas would not serve the purpose of affirmative action, they say.

According to the chamber executives who declined to be quoted, the PMO's intervention was anticipated as the corporate sector had earlier withheld making any commitment to a department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) proposal pushing the case for reservation.

In July, the DIPP under commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma had, in a communication asked the three chambers why the government should not insist on a 5-per cent job quota for the disadvantaged sections.

The DIPP had then suggested that companies enjoying government incentives be asked to proactively tap the disadvantaged sections for meeting 5 per cent of their incremental quota needs, but this was viewed as the first step towards institution of a quota regime in the private sector and turned down the proposal.