PORVORIM: The House on Friday witnessed an uproar over the State government’s submission that it has no data on the number of Goans employed in the private sector. The opposition slammed the government over its failure to adopt a policy decision to reserve 80 per cent of jobs for locals in the private sector.
Admitting to the failures, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant assured the House that he would gather all the required data on employment from private companies and would conduct periodic inspections to verify the same.
Labour and Employment Minister Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate said that the Labour Commissioner has been directed to issue necessary instructions to all industries and other establishments registered under Labour and Employment, and Factories and Boilers, to furnish data on employment with their names and addresses. “The Labour inspectors will then conduct inspection. Within the next three months, we will have all the data in place,” he said.
Congress MLA Sankalp Amonkar had sought details of employment generated in the private sector from the year 2016. He expressed shock over government’s submission that there is no provision to maintain the details of Goans employed in the private sector. “How can the government have no data? That means the government has no control over private sector employment? There is no provision to monitor the employment generation by the industries, which are granted permission to set up here,” Amonkar said.
Supporting him, GFP MLA Vijai Sardesai brought to the notice of the House that as per government submission, there are 1.16 lakh youth registered with the employment exchange, of which 115 got government jobs between 2019 and June 2022 while 1,749 were employed in the private sector. Sardesai said that as per the Employment Exchange Act 1959, the government has powers to ask companies to submit data on employment and future employment opportunities. He said that the government even has powers to access the records of every company.
“However, these powers are not executed or ignored completely. The government should make use of the online portal to direct companies to register all their employees,” he said. Sardesai charged that the Private Member bill seeking 80 per cent reservation to locals in private sector was not allowed by the Speaker to come up in the House. “What stops the Government from bringing in a legislation? Haryana government has introduced it. There is no will from the Government,” he stated. Replying to Sardesai, Sawant said that the law adopted by the Haryana government has been stayed by the Court. “While granting permission to industries, thegovernment directs them to give preference to locals in employment,” he said.
