PMK seeks caste census to protect 69 per cent quota

Chennai: The Pattali Makkal Katchi on Monday demanded caste-wise enumeration of the population in Tamil Nadu so as to prove it has 87 per cent people qualified for reservation under various categories—such as backward and most backward, SCs and STs—as only then would the prevailing 69 per cent reservations would stand.

A petition to this effect was presented to Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami by a PMK delegation led by Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, MP. Deputy CM O. Panneerselvam was also present at the meeting in the state secretariat.

Speaking to reporters later, Dr Anbumani said the PMK has now petitioned the state government to order “immediate” enumeration of the state’s population on caste basis so as to prove that it has 87 per cent people in the various reservation categories as per the Ambasankar Commission report.

“This exercise is absolutely and urgently required in order to protect the continuance of the 69 per cent reservations that Tamil Nadu people enjoy in education and employment”, said the PMK leader.

“This task is not at all difficult, neither is it humongous as it may seem. The Karnataka government had undertaken such a caste-wise exercise in 2016, spending only Rs.147 crore to enumerate six crore population. A total of 1.60 lakh government employees and teachers were used to complete this task in just 45 days. We could do this in Tamil Nadu too”, Dr Anbumani said, adding: “This alone can rid us in Tamil Nadu of the Damocles sword hanging over our 69 per cent reservation quota”.

Meanwhile, his father and PMK chief Dr S.Ramadoss in a statement demanded that the Centre enact a law to introduce reservation quotas for employment in the private sector because jobs in the public sector were drying up. He was responding to a recent remark by Union minister Nitin Gadkari that quotas in the public sector would not guarantee government employment as jobs there are shrinking. 

“Let’s us assume reservation is given. But there are no jobs. In banks, the jobs have shrunk because of IT. The government recruitment is frozen. Where are the jobs?” Gadkari had told a press conference in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad on Saturday when asked about the demand for quotas for Marathas in government jobs and educational institutions. He had also said backwardness was becoming a “political interest”, with everyone claiming he was backward. 

Dr Ramadoss, whose party was a constituent of the UPA-1, said the Congress-led government had conceded there was need for job reservation in the private sector but felt it should not be done by enacting a law. He said the PMK, which has been demanding quotas in the private sector for the last 25 years, will continue to pursue it.