The government's decision will have repercussions for a large number of employees
In a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar approved reservation on outsourced jobs within the public sector. What this means is that employees that are provided by private companies to the government to work in various state departments will now come under the reservation quota.
"The state cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has approved reservation in contract appointments," principal secretary in the cabinet secretariat department, Brajesh Mehrotra, told media in a briefing. According to Mehrotra, all employees employed on a contractual basis, will now have to follow the government's quota norms.
The government's decision will have repercussions for a large number of employees. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior private company official who works with the government stated that an estimated 10,000 employees from private agencies are working as data level operators and in other jobs in various departments. These employees are for the moment fine but the next batch of employees that will be hired will be severely affected by the decision.
"It will be hard on us to provide employees with the requisite skills as per the government's requirements. Recruitment might suffer," he said.
Reservation is a key issue in Bihar, and the Nitish Kumar government has often been accused by Opposition parties of not doing enough for backward castes, especially OBCs and Dalits. The government has announced that in these contractual hirings, Scheduled Castes (SC) should comprise 16 percent, Scheduled Tribes (ST) 1 percent, Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs) 18 percent and Other Backward Castes (OBC) 12 percent reservation.
As hiring is done on a yearly basis, the move is likely to affect the government in January 2018 when the new round of appointees are likely to be shortlisted and hired.
The BJP, which is in alliance with the Janata Dal (United) JD(U) in the state, has hailed the move but senior Opposition leader Lalu Prasad Yadav called it a "farce." He claimed that only a few hundred government jobs were outsourced and it would have no real impact on the economically backward.
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