Lucknow : In an unprecedented move, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Friday evening announced a reservation policy for new industries in the private sector that also includes jobs for poor upper caste people.
According to a decision taken by her cabinet, all private entrepreneurs seeking special concessions for setting up new industrial or business units in the state would have to reserve 30 percent posts in their companies for three different categories of employees.
“This (quota) would be divided equally between Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Castes, including those belonging to the minority community, and the economically weak among upper castes,” Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh told reporters here Friday evening.
“The new policy would not only apply to industrial units but also to trading houses, business ventures, disinvested units as well as educational institutions that have sought concessions like subsidized land, tax holidays or any other grant or special rebate either directly from the state or from any agency of the state,” he added.
Thus 10 percent jobs in all such new units would go each of the three categories.
With her latest move, the Bahujhan Samaj Party chief minister who has been a strong votary of reservations in the private sector, has visibly stumped all other political parties including the Congress.
Mayawati had mooted the idea to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during her first meeting with him after assuming office.
She was of the view that her decision would go a long way in combating the problem of unemployment in the state, where she is expecting huge private investment in the near future.