Videocon, Taj, LG face jobs quota

Companies that seek to renew land leases in Maharashtra or seek aid from the state government, face the prospect of being told by the government to reserve 52 per cent of all new recruitments every year for the backward classes.

The Maharashtra government is implementing a job reservation law for creating employment opportunities for the backward sections of society in the private sector.

"One of the first major corporates to be impacted by the new legislation will be Indian Hotels Company. The Taj hotel property in south Mumbai is housed on land leased from the government, which comes up for renewal in 2005. When the group approaches the state government for renewing the lease, the state will seek a written undertaking on job reservations in the hotel for backward classes," a senior official at the state government's law and judiciary department said.

However, when contacted, a senior Indian Hotels executive said, "We haven't received any notification to this effect and so we would not like to comment on it."

The Maharashtra State Public Services (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Denotified Tribes) Act may also have a bearing on other companies that have, or intend to set up plants at the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC)-created industrial townships, besides those eligible for major incentives such as sales tax exemptions.

The Videocon group, which has three plants at Aurangabad on land obtained from the government, will be affected also. So will LG Electronics India, which is seeking to establish a plant at Pune.

Videocon group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot said, "We welcome the move and will follow the law." YV Verma, head of human resources at LG, said, "I'm not aware of this."