The YSRCP government has passed a historic Bill in the Assembly mandating 75% reservation to locals in all industries, including units, factories, joint ventures and projects set up under public-private partnership mode in Andhra Pradesh.
The yellow media and critics have been quick to condemn this move of YS Jagan saying this would lead to shutdown of industrial units and stop flow of industrial investments into the State.
The move is good if skilled people are available but this is not the case in most of the cases.
Merely making rule will not help. You should go deep into the issue.
"It can't be done just like that," K. Lakshminarayana, former director, Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) told IANS.
The former IAS officer said an expert committee should have been formed to study the issues like what are skills required by different sectors and why locals are not getting the jobs.
"One month delay would not have made any difference. This is not the way of taking a decision," said Lakshminarayana, who was also advisor to then Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.
Judging by the number of investments made in Andhra Pradesh during the tenure of Chandrababu Naidu, one can easily reflect on the kind of advice Lakshminarayana must have given Chandrababu.
Our children, whether they be from Vizag, Vijayawada, Tirupati or Ongole; all of them eventually have to land in Hyderabad for their jobs after their studies. Why? Because we made the mistake of putting all our eggs in one basket and to what effect?
Only to have Hyderabad taken away from us in the name of a false agitation.
Hyderabad in United Andhra Pradesh contributed 56% of the revenue and every citizen of Andhra Pradesh contributed to the development of the city.
After bifurcation, Andhras do not get even 1% revenue share from the city which they have put on the international map (not to forget the millions of Telanganites who were brought out of poverty in the process).
That Telangana is already reeling under a huge debt burden despite getting Hyderabad speaks volumes of their financial acumen but that is another story.
The point is that we do not want a similar situation to occur where our children go elsewhere, work hard and develop the region only to have it grabbed by parasites in the name of self-respect.
Till bifurcation, Andhras believed in the spirit of the Constitution and that an Indian can live and work anywhere. But the bifurcation should be an eye-opener to us.
The rest of the country is not as broad-minded as us. In that case, is it not time to safeguard ourselves from vested interests? Quota for locals will foster the feeling of ‘Andhra Pride’ and unity further.
But what YS Jagan can do is to make changes to the quota proportional to the nature of the industry. For example, IT industry cannot function with this sort of requirement. So, for them, the quota might be pegged at 40%.
For manufacturing, it could be 75% and so on. Quota for locals is good, but it cannot be uniform across all industries.
Yellow media says the investments will not come to Andhra Pradesh with this quota Bill.
First of all, what investments have come to AP? None! So, the situation cannot get any worse, can it?
Take the case of Kia Motors in Anantpur. How many locals are employed in that plant?
And here’s the thing: there are restaurants run by Koreans in the area into which locals are not allowed.
KIA Motors got tremendous tax -benefits and other sops and incentives but the locals do not benefit in any way in terms of employment except for losing their lands at government prices.
Are these the kind of investments we are looking at? What is the point in giving away thousands of acres of land free of cost to multinationals for no tangible return?
At least from now, any company keen on investing in Andhra Pradesh will be forced to provide employment to the locals. It’s the least they can do for all the benefits they are showered with by governments.
Let the Andhras be kings at least in their home State.
What YS Jagan said is absolutely right: “It will lead to greater acceptance of industry by the locals. We are ready to do anything for you (companies). We only want jobs for our children.”
(Venkat Arikatla can be reached at [email protected])
