Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar wants a 50 per cent reservation for backward classes in the private sector jobs and has called for a national debate on it.
“It’s my opinion that there must be reservation in private sector too. There must be a debate on this at the national level,” the Janata Dal-United leader said.
Nitish, whose JD-U is now a BJP ally, said there should not be any contract signed in the private sector unless the employers ensure the quota in their organisations.
While the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) had suggested enacting a law to make private firms set aside jobs for marginalised sections, the government earlier this year denied any move to introduce reservations in the private sector.
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.
