MUMBAI: Raking up a nativist discourse ahead of assembly polls, the BJP-Shiv Sena government has announced its intent to amend rules mandating 80% reservation for locals in employment to include jobs on contract as well as creation of region or district-wise hiring quotas. It has warned, if compliance falters, it is ready to bring in a law.

Industries minister

, of

, said the 80% quota norm in all industries that

of concessions or incentives is being implemented, but new clauses would be added to a government resolution to make implementation more stringent. “If we feel the need to bring in a law to strengthen the representation of localsr, we will bring a law. If the framework falls short of achieving the 80% reservations, there is no problem in bringing a law,” said Desai.

The government is in the process of amending the GR issued by Congress CM Vilasrao Deshmukh in 2008, which was originally issued in 1968 and has been revised many times till 2008. The nativist focus at this moment, especially after Andhra Pradesh passed a law reserving 75% jobs for locals, coincides with the state elections. A few days ago,

’s Ajit Pawar had said that if voted to power, Congress-NCP will bring a law similar to AP’s.

Desai said: “If it is brought to our notice that the 80% rule is not being followed by a particular industry, the tax concessions it gets will be stopped.” His department doles out concessions worth Rs 4,000 crore annually.

To ensure locals benefit from the rule, the GR will create a sub-quota within the 80% for residents in areas where an industry/factory has come up. “We have received complaints that companies fill up posts with people mostly from metros. They are not wrong, the law does not mandate hiring from areas where they set up. So for benefit of locals, we will add categories for area-specific hirings,” said Desai.

However, there is uncertainty about such a mechanism as local skillsets may not meet an industry’s needs. Rituparna Chakraborty, president of Indian Staffing Federation, said, “Employers by default prefer to hire locally. It is only when they don’t get the right fit that they look elsewhere.”

The minister said the curr ent reservation covers supervisory and non-supervisory posts. Now, it will be extended to contract jobs, which are mostly at junior-level and held by those from outside the state. Industry representatives sounded wary about the plan. “Such interstate protectionism will hurt ease of doing business...labour mobility has so far been a boon for this country,” said Chakraborty, also co-founder & executive VP of TeamLease Services.

“If the move stops urban migration and enhances development of local rural infrastructure, it will be useful. But one cannot have mandatory 70-80% local hiring. As a company, we have an obligation to employ the rest of our countrymen ,” said S Venkatesh, president, Group HR, RPG Enterprises.