Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Assocham president Venugopal N. Dhoot has supported the decision of Uttar Pradesh Government for voluntary reservation of jobs for private sector investments in the State.
He said that the unique features of the policy were that those who did not want to avail incentives/tax concessions from the State would not fall under the purview of the job reservation policy. Mr. Dhoot said the agenda push forward for 30 per cent jobs — 10 per cent each for SC, OBCs and backward religious minorities and economically weaker sections from the upper castes — would not make any way industry uncompetitive because there was no dearth of talent. This would, indeed, help the Government to implement its agenda for ‘inclusive growth.’
Assocham had adopted a Code of conduct for its 2,50,000 members from the large, medium and small scale sectors and had started implementing the affirmative action on voluntary basis.
In a meeting of the Assocham Managing Committee held on Friday, the Chamber had created a fund of Rs. 5 crore for skill development and providing basic/higher education to the children from the underprivileged sections of the society.
Noting that U.P. had the potential to become a leading industrial centre of India, given its rich resource base and large labour force, another apex chamber, FICCI, wondered as to how the current initiative of the State Government of ‘voluntary’ reservation of 30 per cent of jobs in the private sector for fresh investment into the state, would make the State more competitive vis-À-vis its six competitor States which rank higher than it.
The industry body said that it would be happy to look at the new frontiers skill training in partnership with the U.P. Government, as it had begun to do with several other States. It will also strongly support reforms in education and health services along with specific projects for Public-Private-Partnership.
