The Centre should enact a law to introduce job reservation in the private sector, PMK chief S Ramadoss said today.
Ramadoss was responding to Union minister Nitin Gadkari's recent remark that quotas in the public sector will not guarantee government employment as jobs there are shrinking.
"Let's us assume the reservation is given. But there are no jobs. In banks, the jobs have shrunk because of IT. The government recruitment is frozen. Where are the jobs?" Gadkari had told a press conference in Maharashtra's Aurangabad on Saturday when asked about the demand for quotas for Marathas in government jobs and educational institutions.
He had also said backwardness was becoming a "political interest", with everyone claiming he was backward.
Since there were fewer jobs in the public sector, the government should bring a law to introduce quotas in the private sector, Ramadoss said in a statement.
Ramadoss, whose party was a constituent of the UPA 1, said the Congress-led government had conceded there was a need for job reservation in the private sector but felt it should not be done by enacting a law.
He said the PMK, which has been demanding quotas in the private sector for the last 25 years, will continue to pursue it.