Prod for Sikkim job reservation

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, 06 Oct 2018, Gangtok: Over 160 big and small manufacturing industries in Sikkim have been asked to comply with the state government policy of reserving 90 per cent jobs in the private sector for local people at the earliest.

A message to this effect was conveyed at a meeting between the representatives of the state industry and labour departments and the industry on Friday. The quota policy introduced about two months back makes it mandatory for the private sector industries to hire only locals in 90 per cent of the jobs. Most of the bigger industries in Sikkim are pharmaceutical companies and breweries, while the the rest are assorted smaller units.

L. P. Chhetri, the secretary of the labour department, said the meeting was fruitful and the industries had been given a week's time to submit a status report on the level of compliance. "There are three or four industries which already have about 60 to 70 per cent local work force. At the mini- mum level, the local employment percentage is about 30 per cent. We have started work on this only after the notification was issued about two months ago. We have asked the industries to comply with the notification fully at the earliest. The industries also sought clarifications on a number of issues, which we provided to them," he said.

A representative of the pharmaceutical industry said it would take a while before 100 per cent compliance was reached. "There are many jobs which require very skilled manpower, which is not available locally. Locals will have to be trained for such jobs before they are absorbed," said the representative.

A senior official in the commerce and industry department said the government was aware of such a problem, and was willing to provide training to the local youths. "The government is willing to work hand-in-hand with the industries to achieve the goal of 90 per cent job reservation for the locals," he said.

Even though the meeting appeared to have ended on a positive note, the beginning was anything but that. Ugen Gyatso Bhutia, the state industry minister, appeared to have taken umbrage at what he perceived to have been the lackadaisical approach of the industries to the meeting. Peeved by the thin attendance and low rung officials representing the industries, the minister publicly voiced his displeasure. "We will only hold meetings with officials of the rank of general manager," he said before deciding to leave the meeting.

The senior commerce and industry official later explained that the minister was miffed by the late arrival of the industry representatives because he had other commitments to meet. "There were perhaps about 25 to 26 representatives at the start, but the number swelled up to about 60 later. The delay, we were told, was because of the traffic jam because many of them had to come from different parts of the state. The subsequent meeting, however, went off smoothly," he said.