Karnataka govt for local quota in IT jobs

Reservation for Kannadigas in the IT sector is a key area where the government wants to intervene, Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan, who holds charge of the IT&BT portfolio, told DH on Wednesday.

"That’s where we are intervening," Narayan said, when asked to spell out the government’s stand on reservation in jobs for Kannadigas in the IT sector.

Narayan also said that the government was working on a comprehensive plan to train local talent for which primacy can be sought and pushed into the IT sector.

"While the chief minister will take the final call, we are trying to scale up talent of local people. That’s where we are coming out with a lot of measures, especially accelerator programmes in the technology sector. Thus, we will tune up the locals so that local resources are fully channelised (into the sector). We will make ourselves competent first," Narayan said.

That jobs should be reserved for localites has become a rallying point for pro-Kannada thinkers who are mounting pressure on the authorities.

In an apparent response to the "Karnataka Jobs for Kannadigas" campaign, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa in his Independence Day speech promised a "lion’s share" for Kannadigas in jobs available in the state and that the government was "committed to ensuring that job opportunities of Kannadigas are never compromised or come under threat".

It was in 2016 that the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government planned to reserve 100% of blue-collar jobs (groups C & D) in the private sector for Kannadigas.

The Law department shot it down saying it violated Constitutional provisions under Articles 14 and 16. But in February this year, the previous H D Kumaraswamy-led government resolved to amend the Karnataka Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Rules, 1961, and ask companies to give primacy to Kannadigas in clerical jobs, in line with recommendations in the Sarojini Mahishi report.

The government is working on some specific plans for the startup sector, Narayan said.

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