India Inc has 2 yrs for quota: Centre

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New Delhi: The quota debate is gathering storm and the doctors have entered the ninth day of hunger strike but the Government does not seem to be relenting.

The Centre now has a new target.

In a move that will just serve to intensify the Centre's stand on increasing quota for backward classes, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Meira Kumar has said that the private sector will be given two years to introduce reservations voluntarily.

Kumar has said that if the private sector does not do the same within the set time limit, then the Government will be forced to bring in a law to that effect.

Simulataneously, the Centre is also working on a package to provide incentives, including tax concessions, for encouraging private companies to set up industries and create employment in districts where a large number of population is Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes.

However, the private sector is staunchly against the quota for backward classes especially since reservations in private corporates are on the Common Minimum Programme of the UPA government.

"We will first see what is their voluntary action, but if it fails, the Government will have to look at other options including making it legal," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said in an interview to CNN-IBN.

Nath also said the Government action would depend on the response from the industry and if the Centre felt that the steps being taken by private firms were not "adequate on the ground", various options would be considered.

Nath said India's growth has so far been "urban-centric" and it was important to develop areas which were not a part of this growth story.

There are about 104 districts in the country, where SCs, STs and OBCs comprised more than 50 per cent of the population, he said, adding these were the areas where the government wanted the industry to set up operations.

"But, if there is no other alternative to all inclusive growth, reservations will have to happen," he said.

Congress spokesperson Rajiv Shukla has clarified that the Prime Minister has said that the issue of reservation be left on the private sector to voluntarily decide and that this should not be imposed by on them by the government.