Firms must display count of Kannadiga staff: K'taka min

Karnataka is considering making all multinational companies publicly display the number of Kannadigas employed in their offices and will frame the rules for this measure soon, a state minister said on Wednesday, sparking a controversy with industry bodies and opposition leaders calling it government overreach that will hurt the image of India's IT capital.

- Arun Dev

The minister for Kannada and culture, Shivaraj S Tangadagi, told the legislature that all MNCs operating in the state must prominently display the number of Kannadigas employed on notice boards. Failure to comply with this requirement could result in the revocation of permissions granted to these companies, he added.

"There has been a discussion to ensure that industries put up display boards on the number of Kannadigas they have employed. We will frame rules for that," he told reporters outside the legislature.

He added that he was heading the committee formed to look into the measure. "We have secretaries of many departments and they have given suggestions. We will discuss and form the rules for industries and multinational companies," the minister said.

The remarks came during a discussion on the Kannada Language Comprehensive Development (Amendment) Bill, which mandates that businesses need to have at least 60% of their signage in Kannada. The bill was tabled in the assembly on February 13 and passed on February 15.