Spend money on skilling, says Mohandas Pai on Karnataka bill seeking job reservations for Kannadigas

After the Karnataka cabinet approved a bill that mandates 100% reservation for Kannadigas in Category C and D jobs in all industries in the state, businessman and philanthropist TV Mohandas Pai slammed the state government saying that skilling Kannadigas is the only way to promote them for jobs rather than giving them reservation.

"If you want to promote Kannadigas for jobs, spend more money on higher education. Give training to them. Spend more money on skill development. Spend more money on internships, spend more money on apprenticeship programs. So they all become skilled. Not like this. What are you trying to achieve by this?," Pai said, speaking on Wednesday.

Pai, the Chairman of Manipal Global Education Services said that the Bill is "fascist" and also unconstitutional.

"This bill should be junked. It is discriminatory, regressive and against the constitution @Jairam_Ramesh is govt to certify who we are? This is a fascist bill as in Animal Farm, unbelievable that @INCIndia can come up with a bill like this- a govt officer will sit on recruitment committees of the private sector? People have to take a language test?" he had earlier said in a post on 'X'.

Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge however, assuaged the fears of the industrialists saying that wide consultation will be held before the rules of the bill are formulated.

"The bill has been brought in by the labour department. They are yet to consult with the industry, the Minister of Industry and the Department of Information Technology. I am sure that before coming up with the rules of the bill, they will have due consultations with the respective ministries and more importantly, a wider consultation with the industry. So there is no need to panic. We are going to safeguard the jobs for the state as well as encourage investments in the industries with their consultation," Kharge said.

Karnataka Industries Minister MB Patil said any apprehensions will be resolved in meetings with the Chief Minister

"I have seen that many people have apprehension regarding this. We will resolve this confusion. We will sit with the CM and resolve this so that it does not have any adverse effect," Patil told ANI.

On Tuesday, the Karnataka cabinet approved a Bill that seeks to reserve 50% of management jobs and 75% of non-management jobs for locals in the private sector. The bill also seeks 100% reservation for locals in "C&D" grade government jobs.

On Wednesday, several industry leaders in the state objected to the move saying that it is "discriminatory" and raised apprehensions that the tech industry may suffer.