Tamils missing out on Central govt jobs a raging political debate now

So much so that even some big players in the state politics like Leader of Opposition MK Stalin have took to warpath against the abysmally low representation of Tamils in the Central government establishments in the state.

The trigger was the selection of apprentices for Golden Rock Railway Workshop in Tiruchy recently. Of the 300 and odd apprentices selected for the year, not one was stated to be from the state, triggering widespread criticism from the Opposition. Stalin who had even reiterated his poll promise that they would ensure that 90 per cent jobs in Central govt run institutions in the state would go to youths in Tamil Nadu.

Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan of BJP was forced to issue a clarification that the Centre was giving preference to youths from the state.

Opposition parties and apolitical groups have claimed that it was not a recent phenomenon, but a practice followed since 2012 and which intensified after the BJP formed government in 2014.

Appointment of Income Tax inspectors made for 2016 through Combined Graduate Level Examination (CGLE) in 2018 is a case in point. Scrutiny of documents revealed that of the 505 inspectors selected for Income Tax department (copy available), hardly had a few were from the state, including the appointments made for Chennai region. The most recent case of glaring absence of the state youths was seen in CPCL (Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited), where only four of the 37 people, mostly engineers appointed were from the state.

K Danasekar, general secretary of National Confederation of OBC Employees Associations blames it on the existing examination system and rampant irregularities in the North for poor representation of Tamil youths in the Central institutions, and says, “Of the 10,659 appointments made through Staff Selection Commission (SSC) for graduate level in 2016, less than 100 were Tamils. If the existing examination system continues, such low representation from the state is bound to continue.”

‘Kolathur’ S Mani, president of Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhgam, who had launched a statewide campaign to draw public attention towards the curiously low representation of Tamils in Centre run establishments in the state, said the problem persisted with officer level posts in the past, but during the last few years, even group C and D level posts in Central establishments are largely being snatched away by people from North, especially from Rajasthan, UP and Haryana, which have a dubious distinction of conducting exams of all kinds fraught with irregularities.

Apprehensions about the conduct of exams in a few northern states cannot be summarily dismissed as sweeping given the annulment of exams conducted for recruitment in Postal department the year before last.

The appointment was not only struck down, but it was brought under CBI scanner after several candidates hailing from the same village and trained in the same coaching Centre secured 24 out of 25 in Tamil.

Another reason for the enviable representation of Hindi speakers in the Central establishments is the medium of exams, which could be taken in both Hindi and English. “If UPSC exams could be written in Tamil, why not SSC exams for group C and D? Writing in mother tongue gives an advantage to Hindi speakers, who also prepare in their language,” argued Mani, alleging that most of the northern appointees, invariably, avail transfer after the mandatory one-year period, resulting in vacancy again in South, which takes at least couple of years to get filled.