PMK warns of stir for quotas in self-financing colleges
By Our Special Correspondent
With the private colleges deciding to follow their own admission procedures in the wake of a Supreme Court verdict, the Pattali Makkal Katchi organised an all-party public meeting to mobilise a political consensus to fight for social justice in the education sector.
Barring the ruling AIADMK, leaders of all parties participated in the meeting, at which the PMK leader, S. Ramadoss, warned that his party would resort to an agitation if the State Government did not ensure immediately that the private colleges followed reservation rules.
Lamenting that education had become a "commercial enterprise", he said engineering colleges had slipped into the hands of liquor traders, political brokers and goondas, who were exploiting the court verdict to admit students not on the basis of merit or reservation, but for money. Still, the Government was "sleeping" without taking any action to stem the rot.Detailing the struggle for reservation in Tamil Nadu since the pre- Independence era, the DMK general secretary, K. Anbazhagan, said quotas for backward and most backward classes and SC|ST must continue for removal of social discrimination and inequities. When the communal GO, issued in 1927 by Muthiah Mudaliar of the Justice Party, was challenged in 1951, the Congress leader, Kamaraj, persuaded the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to bring in the first amendment to the Constitution to protect reservation for backward classes. The Tamil Nadu Government had a "big responsibility" to ensure that the hard-won reservation continued in professional colleges, urged Mr. Anbazhagan.
The CPI secretary, R. Nallakannu, hit out at the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, for not paying adequate attention to protect social justice. "She has no time for starving farmers or suffering students".
As nearly 60,000 of the engineering college students studied in self-financing institutions in the State, continuation of the reservation norms was essential, the Congress spokesman, T.S. Killivalavan, insisted.
The MDMK presidium chairman, L. Ganesan, highlighted the crucial role played by the Dravidian school of thought in the implementation of the reservation policy. In a milestone in the struggle, the erstwhile Karunanidhi regime extended reservation to the most backward communities as well, he said.
The BJP MLA, H. Raja asked the State Government to convene a meeting of educationists and engineering college managements to resolve reservation-related issues.
The Makkal Tamil Desam leader, S. Kannappan; the Republican Party functionary, A. Seppan, and the Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam president, Viduthalai Rajendran, were among those who participated.
No comments:
Post a Comment