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Maharashtra plans 52 per cent quota for `disadvantaged' in private sector

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI, JUNE 8. The Maharashtra Government will enforce 52 per cent reservation for almost all jobs in the private sector by July 30 but some unspecified exceptions may be made to address "genuine issues."

The rules for this quota, the first-ever in India, are being framed under an enactment adopted in December last year and in force since January 29, according to Vijay Kumar Gavit, Maharashtra Minister of State, General Administration. This is "steps ahead of the Centre's proposal under the Common Minimum Programme," he said.

The jobs to be set aside, for some sections of people, with the percentage in brackets, are: the Scheduled Castes (13), Scheduled Tribes (7), De-notified Tribes (3), Nomadic Tribes (8), Special Backward Category (2) and Other Backward Classes (19) add up to 52 per cent and is on par with what is enforced in the Government sector.

Asked if the private sector would accept these quotas, the Industry Minister, Dr. Patangrao Kadam told The Hindu :"We don't intend to do anything that will drive the private sector out of Maharashtra since we need to at least retain the levels of investments here" but "we will take all industry organisations into confidence."

Flexibility possible

The Government is anticipating some resistance from the private sector but there is an insistence that flexibility would be shown whenrequired.

These issues are already being contemplated by thosewho are framing the rules under the Act which prescribes the quota. Dr. Gavit said that "we know that this would not be favoured by the multinationals but we will have to find ways to deal with their concerns."

The Act — the Maharashtra State Public Services (Reservations for SCs, STs, De-notified Tribes, Nomadic Tribes, Special Backward Category and Other Backward Classes) Act 2001, originally did not envisage quotas for the private sector but started as an instrument to identify and punish officials with fines of Rs. 5,000 and jail terms of 90 days if they did not fill the vacancies meant for these sections.

When it was referred to the Joint Select Committee, the members contributed ideas and it was expanded to include all sectors, including the co-operative.

The private sector is actually covered under the description of "any Government-aided institution: those that are recognised, licensed, supervised or controlled by Government."

Dr. Gavit said: "In the Select Committee it was realised that a lot of Government-owned companies may ultimately be privatised. We need to sustain the existing quotas there. Then the idea of the private sector came in. We felt that if a company is registered outside Maharashtra, but has a factory here, then it operates under our laws which means under our supervision. They have licences from us. That means we can enforce the quotas there."

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