Why in news? The Assembly unanimously passed a Bill to provide reservation to Kannadigas in higher education, linking incentives to industries with jobs for locals among other pro-Kannada measures.

Highlights:

• The Bill was piloted by Kannada and Culture Minister V. Sunil Kumar.
• The Bill defines Kannadiga as a person residing in Karnataka for not less than 15 years with knowledge of reading and writing Kannada.
• According to the Bill, Kannada has been adopted as Karnataka’s official language along with laws such as Karnataka Official Language Act, Karnataka Local Authorities (Official Language) Act, Kannada Development Authorities Act and the Kannada Language learning act

What are the main provisions of the bill ?

Education

• As per the Bill, Kannada will be taught in higher, technical and professional education courses.
• Students, studied classes 1 to 10 in Kannada medium will have reservation in higher education
• It seeks to constitute a State-level enforcement committee led by the Kannada and Culture Minister to enforce its provisions.

Bureaucracy

• There will be district-level enforcement committees led by DCs and rural-level enforcement committees led by ZP CEOs.
• The Bill was slightly amended from its original form to provide for the inclusion of representatives of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat in the State-level enforcement committee.

Industries

• The state’s Industrial Policy 2020-25, the Bill proposes to deny land concessions, tax rebates and other sops to private companies that do not recruit the prescribed percentage of Kannadigas.
• The Industrial Policy requires companies to provide 70 per cent of jobs to Kannadigas (100 per cent in the case of Group D employees).
• Industries, shops and commercial establishments, which violate the Bill’s provisions, will be fined Rs 5,000-Rs 20,000 including suspension of licence.
• The Bill further requires the government to establish an employment portal for government offices, public enterprises and private companies to notify vacancies.