Businesses and Opposition parties fear that the new Haryana law reserving 75% private
sector jobs for people belonging to the state may erode competitiveness and disrupt
the post-pandemic recovery, reports Rajesh Moudgil
Even though the Haryana governor Satyadev Narayan Arya has recently given his nod to the Bill giving 75 percent reservation in the private sector to job seekers from the state, a bumpy road awaits the implementation of the Act.
The Act had already been challenged by an industrial house though the Punjab and Haryana high court dismissed the plea as it observed that since the state government was yet to enforce the law, the petitioner industry was not adversely affected by the law at this stage.
Stating that a detailed court order was awaited on the plea filed by a Rohtak-based firm A K Automatics, the counsel for the firm, Vishal Sharma said that the plea was withdrawn with a liberty to file it afresh. The high court judges observed that the government was yet to enforce the Act, so the petitioner industry was not adversely affected by the law at this stage, he said. That means that the Act is not applicable to the private sector in Haryana to this day, he added.
However, while the law provides for 75 percent quota in all private-sector jobs with monthly salary less than 50,000 for those born in Haryana or living here for five years, a major section of industrial houses has looked askance at the bill arguing that it was an attempt to introduce a domicile methodology for securing a job in the private sector rather than on the basis of a candidate’s education, professional skills, and intellect, which would create chaos in the current industrial employment structure.
Also, aside from the concern of the industries, even the JJP MLA Ram
Kumar Gautam has raised objections against the Bill in the assembly calling it ridiculous legislation which was totally wrong. He held that if Haryana went ahead with this kind of a reservation, other states would also follow the same and that would result in a “total chaos’’.
The Congress MLA B B Batra said that the Bill was in violation of Article 16 of the Constitution of India. However, the Haryana government claims otherwise as, according to it, Article 16 talks about public employment, while the Bill pertains to private sector employment.
Govt gaga over the Bill
