Congress-led Karnataka govt doubles down on implementation of private quota bill: ‘Kannadigas have the first right to.’
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Congress leaders assured on Thursday that the private sector quota bill would be implemented in Karnataka ‘sooner or later’. The state minister said that the government would hold consultations with various industries in order to address ‘confusion’ about the initiative. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has also indicated that the bill remains ‘temporarily on hold’.
“Currently, there is confusion among industries, which is why this proposal has been put on hold. We will have consultations with them to address their apprehensions. People in the state have the first right to jobs,” Priyank Kharge told.
The Karnataka cabinet had recently approved a bill enforcing 50% reservation for administrative posts and 75% for non-administrative posts for Kannadigas in private industries. The move has sparked backlash from several quarters with BJP leaders dubbing it ‘unconstitutional’.
Chief Minister said that a ‘comprehensive discussion’ would be held during the next cabinet meeting before a final decision was taken.
“The draft bill intended to provide reservations for Kannadigas in private sector companies, industries, and enterprises is still in the preparation stage. A comprehensive discussion will be held in the next cabinet meeting to make a final decision,” added Siddaramaiah on Wednesday.
Meanwhile the BJP insisted that the entire saga was ‘natakbaazi’ by the ruling party. Senior party leader CT Ravi insisted that the bill was a ploy to ‘divert people’ from their criticism of the Congress government.
“This is all ‘natakbaazi’ to divert the issue. The atmosphere is against the CM and Congress government. To divert people from the issue, they are doing this. The Kannada schools are going to close; in the state, they should first think about that. Why are the schools being closed? They are not doing anything regarding this. They are just doing nautanki,” the BJP leader told ANI.
