Karnataka Cabinet approves draft Bill mandating job reservation for locals

The Karnataka Cabinet approved a draft bill that mandates 50 per cent reservation for locals in management jobs and 75 per cent reservation in non-management categories. The “Karnataka State Government Employment of Local Candidates in Industries Bill, 2024” was cleared in a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on July 15. It is slated to be presented during the current legislative session.

Definition of local 

The Act defines a local candidate as a person born in the Karnataka and domiciled in the State for 15 years. Additionally, the person should speak, read and write Kannada in a legible manner. The candidates should have a secondary school certificate with Kannada as a language. If not, they must pass a Kannada proficiency test as specified by the nodal agency. 

In situations where there is a lack of qualified local candidates, the hiring establishments in collaboration with government agencies should train the candidates within three years. 

Exemptions and Penalties 

The Bill also mentions exemptions in cases where enough local candidates are not available. In such instances, the hiring establishment may apply to the government for relaxation from the Act’s provisions. The government, after conducting a proper inquiry, may issue appropriate orders, which shall be final.  

However, it is stipulated that the percentage of local candidates should not fall below 25 per cent for management positions and 50 percent for non-management categories, and failure to comply to the reservation mandate may attract penalties ranging from ₹10,000 to ₹25,000. Continued violations could result in additional penalties of ₹100 per day until compliance is achieved. 

“The sentiment of localism has been brewing for some time and has expressed itself in different ways, be it in the form of highlighting Kannada in all advertisements or the demand for jobs for locals. As a logical corollary to that, I think this legislation has been passed. We must see how effectively and realistically this legislation will be implemented because there may be an intent of pandering to the sentiments of the children of the land,” said political analyst Sandeep Shastri. 

Adding that in terms of implementation, there is always a gap between the rhetoric and the reality, he said the challenge lies in finding the number of locals for the various types of management and non-management level jobs. “The reality of globalisation requires movement of people across States and countries also. How this legislation responds to this requirement would be another question,” he said.  

The CM also addressed the revision of pay and pension of State government employees as recommended by the 7^th State pay commission which was originally constituted in 2022 and later submitted in 2024. As part of this revision, salary and pensions of government employees in Karnataka will increase by 58.50 per cent and the house rent allowance by 32 per cent. The minimum basic pay of employees will increase from ₹17,000 to ₹27,000 while the maximum pay will be revised from ₹1,50,600 to ₹2,41,200. The minimum pension of employees will be increased from ₹8,500 to ₹13,500, and the maximum pension from ₹75,300 to ₹1,20,600.

This salary revision will incur an additional expenditure of ₹20,208 crore per annum and necessary budgetary provisions have been made in the Budget of 2024-25.