The Karnataka government should create a formal system for complaints about alleged discrimination against Kannadigas during recruitment by private companies, Bengaluru Industrial and Commerce (BCIC) president K. Ravi said, adding that the mechanism could improve accountability in the state’s employment market.
Ravi told Prajavani that the system should allow candidates to report cases in which companies deliberately exclude Kannadigas from recruitment. He said BCIC was ready to work with the government on creating such a mechanism.
“If discrimination is taking place in recruitment, a system to report it would create fear among those committing discrimination,” Ravi said. His comments followed a statement by Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar that private companies, including those in the information technology sector, could not be allowed to deliberately ignore Kannadigas and that appropriate action would be taken.
Ravi clarified that the Chief Minister had not called for reservations for Kannadigas. Instead, he said, Shivakumar had urged companies not to exclude local candidates during recruitment. Ravi added that the Chief Minister’s remarks may have followed some instances of alleged discrimination against Kannadigas, although the report did not provide details of specific companies or cases.
The BCIC president said local residents understood the region’s culture and argued that companies should consider them fairly during recruitment. At the same time, he said skills among local candidates also needed to be strengthened.
Ravi called on company boards to instruct their human resources departments to follow an impartial recruitment process. The proposed complaint mechanism, as described in the report, would create an institutional channel for candidates to raise concerns, but no details were provided on its design, authority, investigation process or possible penalties.
The discussion places recruitment practices within a wider question of how Bengaluru and Karnataka can expand access to private-sector employment while maintaining merit-based hiring. The report did not state whether the government has formally announced a framework or timeline for creating the proposed system.
