Karnataka puts job quota bill on hold

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Wednesday put the bill on hold which mandated reservation for Kannadigas in the private sector. Karnataka State Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries, Factories and Other Establishments Bill, 2024 was cleared by the state Cabinet on Tuesday.

"The bill approved by the Cabinet to provide reservation for Kannadigas in private sector organisations, industries and enterprises has been temporarily put on hold. This will be revisited and decided in the coming days," a statement issued by the Office of the Chief Minister said on Wednesday.

"Any industry, factory or other establishments shall appoint 50 per cent of local candidates in management categories and seventy per cent in non-management categories," the bill read. The bill came in for criticism from business honchos and tech tycoons. Meanwhile, the Ministers who approved the Karnataka State Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries, Factories and Other Establishments Bill, 2024 in the Cabinet meeting on Monday assured industries not to have any fear or apprehensions as they would have more discussions on it.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday deleted his post on 'X' about '100 per cent reservation for Kannadigas'.

He posted another message on the social media platform that the Cabinet 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. On Tuesday, he had said, "The Cabinet meeting held yesterday (Monday) approved a bill to make recruitment of 100 per cent Kannadigas mandatory for "C and D" grade posts in all private industries in the state."