New Delhi: The government today denied any move to introduce reservations in the private sector, saying there was "no such proposal", a year after the National Commission for Backward Classes had suggested enacting a law to make private firms set aside jobs for marginalised sections.
"There is no such proposal (for reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) in the private sector," social justice and empowerment minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot told a news conference.
"A committee has been set up for talking to the private sector to create a consensus. But there is no consensus yet. Once there is consensus, we will consider," Gehlot added.
An expert on reservations said the demand for job quotas in the private sector was around a decade-and-a-half old but successive governments have avoided coming up with anything concrete.
The NCBC had last year recommended that the government enact a law to make it mandatory for the private sector to reserve 27 per cent of jobs for OBCs, while food minister Ram Vilas Paswan has suggested that private sectors voluntarily set aside jobs for SCs, STs and OBCs.
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