Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah deletes 100% job quota post, shares clarification

A controversy erupted after Siddaramaiah, in a now-deleted post on 'X', had said that Karnataka had approved a Bill mandating the private industries to give reservation to local Kannadigas in jobs

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday clarified that the government has approved a Bill mandating 50-75 per cent employment reservation for Kannadigas in state’s private sector, hours after deleting his earlier post on social media platform ‘X’ from a day before.

A major controversy erupted after Siddaramaiah, in a now-deleted post on ‘X’, had said that the government had approved a Bill mandating the private industries to recruit 100 per cent of Kannadigas in ‘C’ and ‘D’ grade posts.

“The cabinet meeting held on Monday approved the Bill to fix 50 per cent reservation for administrative posts and 75 per cent for non-administrative posts for Kannadigas in private industries and other organisations of the state,” the CM said in the new post, emphasising his government’s priority to look after the welfare of the Kannadigas.

New employment Bill draws criticism

The move has drawn criticism from various industry leaders, who believe it would impact sectors such as IT and highlighted that the government should rather focus on skill training.

Karnataka Labour Minister Santosh S Lad on Wednesday defended the Congress government’s decision to introduce a new employment Bill.

Speaking to ANI, Lad said that the government is making an effort to give preference to locally available skilled workers. He said that the desired skills are not available, people can be outsourced but pointed out that there is no dearth of talent in the state. Lad noted that Karnataka has enough skilled workforce, attributing his claim to the presence of adequate higher education institutions in the state.

The draft Bill is aimed at reserving 50 per cent of the management roles and 75 per cent of the non-management roles for the locals.

The local candidates, seeking appointment under the proposed reservation Bill, will need to produce a secondary school certificate with Kannada as a language. In case they do not have one, they can attempt a Kannada proficiency test specified by the authorities.

The government has laid out certain exceptions and guidelines for relaxation in this reservation threshold in case the companies fail to recruit sufficient numbers of local candidates.

The Bill also has provision for penalties in case the companies flout the norms.