Mumbai: Prime minister Manmohan Singh, yesterday said
that he favoured a national policy on job reservations
for the weaker sections in the private sector, though
not by legislation.
"It
can be done voluntarily by the corporate sector. I am
not suggesting jobs should be given without merit. People
can be trained," Singh said.
Addressing
a press conference here Singh said, "Nobody can stop
an idea whose time has come."
"The
country should ensure that weaker sections like scheduled
castes, scheduled tribes, minorities and women get a fair
and square deal."
Singh
added that he had asked the union agriculture minister,
Sharad Pawar, who heads a committee on reservations, to
continue his discussions on with the private sector.
The
prime minister however, ruled out the introduction of
any legislation to enforce job reservations in the private
sector.
Asked
about the mounting oil price and its impact on inflation,
Singh said the government had a mechanism in place to
tackle the situation even if oil prices continued to hover
above the $50 a barrel mark.
Later,
addressing a gathering of industrialists, Singh said more
tax reforms would be announced in the next union budget.
The UPA government did not have enough time to work on
the last budget and, therefore, could not bring out several
changes that it had wanted to. Now that the government
was firmly in the saddle it was committed to implementing
a progressive tax system.
"The government is committed to toning up the functioning
of the public sector undertakings and public sector banks,"
he said.
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