Jharkhand’s cabinet approved an employment policy on Friday requiring 75% of private sector jobs up to a salary of Rs 30,000 a month to be reserved for the local population, sources close to Chief Minister Hemant Soren said.
The decision comes days later Haryana notified her policy from reserving 75% of jobs in the private sector up to a specific salary for local candidates.
“The CM will announce the new policy in the next week of the Assembly session, probably March 17th. Some modalities remain to be decided; they will be announced in the Assembly, ”said a senior source from the Jharkhand Chief Minister’s Office. Soren had previously said that the government was contemplating a reservation policy for locals.
According to the Economic Survey, the unemployment rate in Jharkhand rose to a peak of 59.2% at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in May 2020, before gradually falling to 11.3% in January 2021. In January In 2020, the unemployment rate stood at 10.6%.
It emerged that Friday’s cabinet meeting approved several other proposals as well; however, ministers and officials were silent on the details.
The decision on local reserve policy comes days after the Chief Minister met with stakeholders in Delhi to discuss a draft of the Jharkhand Investment and Industrial Promotion Policy, 2021. The state government also signed a memorandum. of understanding with the FICCI on the sidelines of the event.
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An operational problem in the implementation of the proposed local reserve policy could lie in the identification of its beneficiaries. Questions about the definition of a Jharkhandi led to the resignation of Prime Minister Babulal Marandi in 2002, and successive governments thereafter refrained from addressing the issue.
The government of Chief Minister Raghubar Das, who came to power in 2014, notified a “relaxed domicile policy” in 2016, listing six ways one could be treated as a state domicile. However, Das’s policy was criticized for not giving priority to the tribals, for whom the state was created.
One minister said: “A subcommittee was announced to redefine who would be treated as domicile. The three-member subcommittee will define ‘Jharkhandi’, based on which a local employment policy will be enacted ”
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