Nitish Kumar pitches for reservation in private sector, calls for debate

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday batted for reservation in the private sector, saying that there should be a debate on the issue at the national level.

"It's my opinion that there must be reservation in the private sector too. There must be a debate on this at the national level," he said at a press conference, as per ANI.

Last week, the Bihar Cabinet had approved a proposal to bring outsourced government jobs within the ambit of reservation.

This is not first time that Nitish has demanded reservation in the private sector.

On April 9 last year, he not only demanded increasing the reservation quota in jobs beyond 50 percent but had also advocated extending the facility in the private sector.

Earlier, the Lok Janshakti Party led by Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had also demanded job reservations in private firms.

Similar demands have been made in the past by other political outfits as well.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had made a case in 2017 for extending the reservation policy to the private sector.

However, several industry associations have maintained over the years that introducing reservations could create hurdles in growth due to a dearth in skilled labour and hurt chances of attracting investments in the state.

Joining the debate, NITI Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar had said in October that he was against extending the policy to the private sector.

"There should not be job reservation in the private sector," Kumar had said, as per PTI.

He, however, made a case for generating more employment, saying that the government is able to provide employment to 10-12 lakh youths, though 60 lakh young people join the labour force every year.

Many people used to find some kinds of jobs in informal sector but that has reached a point of saturation, resulting in complaints from different sections of people, Kumar had said.

Presently, the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Class (OBCs) and physically handicapped persons are entitled to reservation in educational institutions and government jobs.

(With Agency inputs)