Gandhinagar: State labour and employment minister Balvantsinh Rajput said in the Gujarat assembly on Thursday that enacting legislation to enforce 85% employment for locals by industries would violate provisions of the Constitution of India. Hence, the govt issued a notification on March 31, 1995, directing industries to follow the said rule.
The question of industries providing 85% employment to locals comes up for discussion every year in the Gujarat assembly, but this is perhaps the first time that the govt has admitted on the floor of the House that enacting a law to enforce the notification would violate provisions of the Constitution.
Rajput also told the House that the 1995 notification was being implemented effectively across the state, with 89-95% locals being employed in industries of various districts. He said that industries not adhering to the 85% employment norm are referred to the office of the industries commissioner for necessary action.
Speaking in response to several questions raised by the opposition MLAs on whether the norm of 85% employment for locals was being followed or not, the minister said, “The state govt is ensuring implementation of the 1995 notification on employment for locals. We cannot enact a law because of the provisions of the Constitution of India. States like Karnataka and Haryana tried enacting such a law but failed to do so. The state govt is striving hard to ensure implementation of the 1995 notification,” the minister said in his reply.
Rajput said that according to provisions of the March 31, 1995 govt notification, 60% of all supervisor/managerial positions should be filled by locals, while 85% of all worker-level positions should be filled by employing locals. “According to the notification, the definition of a local is a person residing in that particular place for a minimum of 15 years,” the minister said.
Even as Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar alleged that the govt failed to effectively implement the 1995 notification on employment for locals, the minister replied that in the past 20 years, employment generation in Gujarat was the highest among all states and the unemployment rate was the lowest in the country.
