Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah deletes X post on job reservations for Kannadigas amid backlash; minister clarifies.

Karnataka labor minister said job reservations in private firms are capped at 70% for non-management roles and 50% for management-level positions. Karnataka labor minister Santosh S Lad on Wednesday clarified that job reservations in private firms in the state are capped at 70 per cent for non-management roles and 50 per cent for management-level positions. Santosh Lad’s clarification comes amid a huge backlash over chief minister Siddaramaiah’s X (formally Twitter) post declaring that there would be 100 per cent reservation for Kannadigas in all Group C and Group D jobs in private companies. The chief minister, however, deleted the post in which he had announced the decision. “Our government’s aspiration is that no Kannadigas should be deprived of jobs in the land of Kannada so that they can lead peaceful lives. Ours is a pro-Kannada government,” Siddaramaiah had posted. Speaking Siddaramaiah’s post, Santosh S Lad told news agency ANI, “At management (level), it has been decided to provide reservation to 50% of the people. At the non-management level, it has been decided to provide work to 70 per cent…If such skills are not available, people can be outsourced and they can be given work here. But the government is trying to bring in a law to give preference to locally available skills – if it is available here…” Siddaramaiah had earlier said the Karnataka cabinet has approved a bill mandating 100 per cent reservation for Kannadigas in private sector for Group C and D posts. The decision was taken at the Cabinet meeting held on Monday. “The Cabinet meeting held yesterday (Monday) approved a bill to make recruitment of 100 per cent Kannadigas mandatory for ‘C and D’ grade posts in all private industries in the state,” Siddaramaiah said in a post on X. News agency PTI citing in the law department reported that the ‘Karnataka State Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries, Factories and Other Establishments Bill, 2024’ will be tabled on Thursday in the assembly. On the appointment of ‘Local Candidates”, the bill says, “Any industry, factory or other establishments shall appoint fifty per cent of local candidates in management categories and seventy per cent in non-management categories.”