Deshmukh (top), Thackeray

Mumbai, Nov. 17: Maharashtra’s image as the magnet for India’s industrious has received a jolt with the Vilasrao Deshmukh regime today directing industries to give preference to up to 80 per cent of locals while hiring.

The decision, issued through a resolution of the industries and labour ministry, comes barely a month after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Shiv Sena activists beat up railway recruitment examinees from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The attack had triggered a wave of protests across India and an aborted bus hijack attempt in Mumbai by a Patna job-hunter.

A government resolution is a policy directive that can be issued with or without a cabinet nod and is usually binding, unless decreed so. However, a resolution does not have the legal teeth which a notification or an Act has.

The resolution directs all types of industries — small, medium and large enterprises — to give preference to at least 50 per cent locals in jobs of a supervisory nature, which includes senior managerial positions, and 80 per cent in other categories.

The Congress-led government, which has been under fire from the party’s Uttar Pradesh and Bihar allies for being “soft” on MNS chief Raj Thackeray, has sought to sugarcoat the resolution by defining a “local” as a person domiciled in the state for at least 15 years, irrespective of mother tongue.

Industries secretary Aziz Khan said providing preference to locals in industries had been a long-standing policy of the state and an advisory had been issued in 1968. But today’s resolution, he asserted, had laid down a better framework for monitoring its implementation.

A monitoring committee headed by the district collector would be set up. It will include representatives from the departments of labour, industry, self-employment and vocational training, and would meet every three months.

The panel would interact with a state-level co-ordination committee reporting to the development commissioner, industries, for periodic reviews.

Industrial units which cannot implement the policy have been asked to immediately submit a time-bound programme of recruitment to the government.

Videocon Group chairman Venugopal Dhoot, who rejected Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s invitation to set up a semiconductor plant and preferred to stick to Maharashtra, welcomed the decision. “My companies employ perhaps more than 80 per cent locals. If industries take government incentives — and no industry can survive without them — then they should obey government policies. What is wrong with it? I am sure most industries would welcome this,” said Dhoot.

Malini Shankar, development commissioner, industries, said the policy would be equally valid for industries that have not taken any government sops. “For industries which have taken concessions and incentives, we will make it (the policy) highly mandatory. We have a right to do it. With those who have not taken incentives, we will insist they explain what they can do to implement this,” she said.

Asked if the government would take penal action if the policy is not implemented, Shankar said: “The idea is not to punish industries, but to encourage them to provide local employment. The global financial crisis is punishing enough for the industries at the moment.”

The MNS was quick to claim credit for the decision. “There is no doubt that our agitation has pressurised the government into taking the right decision. We welcome the development, and hope they implement it well,” said party general secretary Nitin Sardesai.