HT, 14, July 2007 Inc Grab the Poor's land but don't have jobs for them?
Industry leaders on Saturday said that they were ready to provide employment opportunities to people from Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), but were opposed to mandatory job reservation in the private sector. Industry captains like Bharti Group chairman Sunil Mittal, Videocon Chairman Venugopal Dhoot and others told the government that voluntary action would be better than a legislation. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had convened a meeting to take stock of India Inc's voluntary affirmative action plan on jobs to SCs and STs. Principal Secretary in the PMO, TKA Nair, chaired the meeting. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had constituted a coordination committee for affirmative action in the private sector in October last year, headed by Nair. Industry captains like Sunil Mittal, Venugopal Dhoot and others told the government that voluntary action would be better than a legislation.In March, the government asked India Inc to incorporate employment data of SCs and STs in their annual reports for 2006-07. "The government did not press for mandatory reservation," said Mittal, who is also president of the CII. Assocham president Dhoot said the Chamber has created a corpus of Rs 5 crore for skill upgradation of SCs/STs. He also proposed a one per cent education tax on corporate profits to fund elementary education for SCs/STs and other backward classes. Ficci chairman Amit Mitra said the Chamber will adopt a total of 50 industrial training institutes this year and graduate 5,000 SC/ST students in an equal partnership with the central government. "We have requested the government to offer half of the stipend of Rs 750 per month for each SC/ST student; Ficci will bear the other half and also train 100 SC/ST students over one year," he said. http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=3a86886f-62df-4e4b-ab7d-47dbf82d4ef5&&Headline=India+Inc+opposes+job+quota+in+pvt+sector -- STATE WATCH Team, Ranchi email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: www.swatchindia.blogspot.com -- Ranjit --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ greenyouth mailinglist is the activist support mailinglist for kerala To post to this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
