VCK to protest against SC's creamy layer decision in TN on Aug 13

CHENNAI: The VCK, a Dalit political party in Tamil Nadu, will hold a protest march here on August 13 against the sub-categorisation of communities within the Scheduled Caste fold.

In a statement on Sunday, the VCK founder leader and Member of Parliament from Chidambaram Lok Sabha seat, Thol Thirumavalavan said the Supreme Court verdict allowing sub-categorisation of communities within the SC list by the state government and comments on the creamy layer would ultimately lead to the end of reservations.

Thirumavalavan said he and VCK general secretary and Villupuram MP, D.Ravikumar met Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Ramdas Athawale, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi and apprised them of the issue and also requested for their support.

Thirumavalavan said the Union government had "ensured that there was no way to enumerate the population of SC/STs by not conducting a census, and also was refusing to increase reservations based on 2011 census data".

The senior VCK leader said, “In Union government jobs, the 15 per cent reservations for SCs have not been implemented in any department. Similarly, 7.5 per cent reservations for STs also have not been ensured."

He said that the state governments too have not filled the SC/ST vacancies and have kept them open without appointing anyone.

The VCK founder leader said, “While lakhs of SC/ST youth are struggling to find jobs, a Judge has said that reservations should not be given to SC/ST persons if one generation has received its benefit.”

In the statement, the senior Dalit leader also said there were fears that the BJP government would implement a ‘creamy layer’ for SC/ST reservations after four out of seven judges in the Supreme Court said it.

He called upon the Centre to file a review petition against the Supreme Court verdict that allows states to sub-categorise SC communities and provide reservations. Thol Thirumalavan said that comments regarding the creamy layer should be retracted and proportional reservation to SC/ST provided based on their population.

Earlier this month, a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud ruled in a 6:1 majority judgment that state governments were permitted to sub-classify communities within the SC list based on empirical data.

On Friday, the Union Cabinet turned it down, saying that there was no provision for a creamy layer in SC/ST reservation in the Constitution given by B R Ambedkar”.