GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court, on August 10, admitted a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the employment of local candidates based on the recommendations of the High-Level Committee on Clause 6 of the Assam Accord Implementation.
A division bench of Gauhati High Court comprising Chief Justice Rashmin Manharbhai Chhaya and Justice Soumitra Saikia admitted the PIL (No 52/2022) and August 26 was fixed as the next date of hearing.
The PIL was filed by Durlav Talukdar, an unemployed youth and a leader of an NGO Indian Student Organisation (ISO). The PIL quoted the news report of Business Standard stating that Assam has a total of 16,99,977 educated unemployed people as per records available up to December 31, 2018. The report stated that the records in Employment Exchanges across the state also show that there are 20,24,886 registered employed persons in 2018.
It claimed that Assam’s unemployment rate hit a 19-month high of 11.1 per cent in April 2020, according to a survey conducted by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). Over a longer period, unemployment has moved from 0.7 per cent in April 2016 to its current rate.
The PIL also quoted a report of the Kerala government that 17.5 per cent of the migrant labourers are coming to the state from Assam.
The PIL further referred to the Andhra Pradesh Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries/Factories Act, 2019 to reserve at least 75 per cent of jobs for local candidates in the private sector and public-private partnership companies in the state.
Justice (retd) BK Sharma led the High-Level Committee for Implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to suggest measures and recommendations to be adopted for providing a constitutional, legal and administrative safeguard for the implementation of Clause 6, submitted its report to the Assam government in February 2020.
Clause 6 states, “Constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate, shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people.”
The Committee recommended 80 per cent reservation of vacancies under state government undertakings and 70 per cent reservation of vacancies arising in the private sector including PPP mode for Assamese people.
