Thursday, May 25 2006 12:45 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Efforts are on to reach a consensus with private sector on the contentious issue of bringing a legislation to provide reservation in private industries, Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Meira Kumar has said.

"The Dialogue of reservation in Private Sector with private industries is still on", she said in Parliament while making a statement on the status of implementation of the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowernment.

She informed the Lok Sabha on May 23 that 21 Captains of industry of Private Sector on May 21, 2005, had issued a statement wherein they have committed to expand their activities for disadvantaged persons with regard to scholarships, company-run private schools, partnership with government schools, vocational training in-house as well as in partnership with IITs, vendor development programmes.

The GoM constituted by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue has also considered the opinions of three legal luminaries that a law can not be enacted for providing reservations in private sector without amending the Constitution, she said.

Though there is no final decision on the issue by the government, Kumar has been referring to the National Common Minimum Proogramme of the UPA government, which she says has a provision for reservation in private sector.

"In the national common minimum programme, there is a provision for reservations for SCs/STs in the private sector," Kumar has said on several occasions when she was asked about the status of reservation in private sector for SCs/STs.