DMK to protest as Guv seeks time to study students quota bill

DMK President M.K. Stalin on Thursday said his party will hold a massive protest outside the Raj Bhavan on Saturday to demand Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit give his immediate assent to the bill for reservation to government school students in medical college admissions.

Stalin made the announcement after he received a reply to his letter in this regard from the Governor on Thursday.

In his letter, Purohit had said that he needs three to four weeks time to arrive at a decision on the Bill that provides 7.5 per cent horizontal reservation in medical college admissions to those who had studied in government schools.

"The same has also been informed to the delegation of Ministers who called on me recently," he told Stalin.

Stalin, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, had written to Purohit on Wednesday to give his assent to the Bill.

Reacting to Purohit's letter, Stalin, in a statement, said that a month has already passed since the Bill was passed and that another month to take a decision on it is to water down the Bill.

The Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Courses in Medicine, Dentistry, Indian Medicine and Homeopathy on preferential basis to the students of the Government Schools Bill, 2020 providing 7.5 per cent reservation for government school students was passed by the Assembly on September 15.

Stalin also said the Group of Ministers who had met Purohit on the subject had held back from the media what the Governor had told them, while adding that Chief Minister K. Palaniswami had not responded to his suggestion to hold a joint protest to secure the state's rights.

In this situation, Stalin said it is imperative on the part of the DMK to protest to seek that Purohit give his immediate assent to the reservation Bill while condemning the AIADMK government for not exerting pressure on the Governor on the matter.