Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday said necessary legal provisions will be made to ensure that only local people get jobs in the state government.
He also said resources of the state are meant for residents of the state.
"The state (BJP) government has taken an important decision today that government jobs will be given only to youths of Madhya Pradesh. We are making necessary legal provisions for this purpose. Resources of Madhya Pradesh are meant for children of the state," Chouhan said in a video statement.
He, however, did not elaborate on the proposed legal provisions.
Later in a tweet addressed to youths, the CM said," From today, the children of Madhya Pradesh will have the first right over the resources of Madhya Pradesh. All government jobs will be reserved only for the children of Madhya Pradesh. Our aim is to involve the local talents in the upliftment of the state".
An official statement quoted Chouhan as saying that students of the state will be taken in in government services and "necessary statutory provisions will be made to ensure this".
In his Independence Day speech, Chouhan had announced that preference would be given to local people in government jobs.
He had also said his government will devise a mechanism to ensure employment to youths on the basis of their marksheets of classes 10 and 12.
The then Kamal Nath-led Congress government had also announced to reserve 70 per cent of jobs in industrial units for locals.
Reacting to the announcement made by the CM, Nath, who heads the state Congress unit, said, "students and youths of the state should not be cheated again as had happened during the earlier 15-year stints of the BJP".
Hopefully, this announcement was not made with an eye on upcoming assembly bypolls.
Byelections are due on 27 seats, 25 of which fell vacant after resignations of sitting MLAs this year while two legislators had died.
22 of the 25 MLAs had walked out with Congress rebel Jyotiraditya Scindia in March this year and joined the BJP, leading to collapse of the Nath-led government.
Nath demanded that the government make public the data on the number of youths who have been provided jobs by the BJP in its previous stints of 15 years.
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said he had been demanding that residents of the state get jobs in government.
"Thank you for conceding my demand, Shivraj ji. But how to trust you till the issuance of government order in this regard? For what (you were) waiting for 15 years? You marred the rights of thousands of promising youths of Madhya Pradesh. Who is responsible for the corruption of Vyapam (job scam)? You and only you," Singh tweeted.
On the other hand, state BJP chief VD Sharma welcomed the announcement, saying it is an important step towards creating "Swarnim Madhya Pradesh".
