Letter to BS: Amid job uncertainty, local reservations should be deterred

With Haryana deciding to reserve 75 per cent of the jobs in the private sector for locals, the question is, amidst the prevailing insecurity over jobs, will it not be demoralising for those who might be looking to apply for a job in Haryana but do not belong to the state? Moving a step further, the government of India has mandated e-commerce websites to declare the place of origin of the goods they sell on their websites.

The Constitution seeks to secure equality of status and opportunity for every citizen. However, with its current directive, Haryana is imposing a severe threat to that “equality”. It is not the only state to move in this direction to woo its residents: Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra etc. are among those that have already tried doing that. With more states moving in this direction, the idea of “one nation” will become a distant dream. When skill sets, qualification, experience etc. should have been the deciding factors, once the 75 per cent reservation kicks in, all this will be a sham. Just like no country is self-sufficient, no state in India can rely only on its local workforce. Some states are job creators while some prepare people for those jobs, and to maintain the demand-supply balance of the workforce, local reservations ought to be deterred.         

Ankita Kalia  Chandigarh

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