Officials studying politico-legal issues, feasibility for GO on Vanniyar quota

“Any GO on the reservation had always had an equal and opposite reaction and the new reservation demanded by the PMK should be experimented and reservations come in proportion to their population,” said an informed state official. Vanniyars are expected to be around 13 to 15 per cent and if the population had decreased it would reduce their quota. Already Vanniyars enjoy the benefit under the Most Backward Class quota category. At the same time the government will have to face a volley of legal and political issues whenever new GOs on caste reservations are passed, the official said. 

“When it comes to social justice and empowerment of downtrodden both the AIADMK and DMK has a rich history of amending bills related to reservation policies. The 69 per cent OBC reservation mooted by former chief minister J Jayalalithaa and the Arundhathiyar reservation by the late M Karunanidhi are remarkable achievements of social justice, but now hardly there are any provisions to bring in further reservation policies,” said an informed government pleader dealing with reservation-related cases. 

“The state is facing hundreds of litigations before the courts in implementing the one per cent reservation policy for scheduled tribes. Passing new orders on the reservation is easy but implementing reservation policies is an issue in TN,” said Dr M Balaji, coordinator, Tamil Nadu Veterinary Graduates Federation. 

At present, the postings are filled in the government jobs using reservation policy, but again then there are litigations seeking court’s intervention for social justice. There should be a stage where reservation policies are implemented to benefit the downtrodden transparently so that the reservation-related court cases are reduced, Balaji opined. 

Caste is an important criterion in determining the winners when it comes to Assembly elections and the ruling AIADMK, which is well aware of the situation is involved in the process of pampering the votes of two largest communities, Vanniyar in north Tamil Nadu and Devendira Kula Vellalars in southern Tamil Nadu. 

“Prime demand of people of Devendira Kula Vellalar community is to recognise the seven sub-castes of Pallar community into one and to call them as Devendira Kula Vellalars. If the ruling AIADMK government takes steps to merge all the seven communities the people of Devendira Kula Vellalar community will be grateful to them,” Devendira Kula Makkal Munnetra Peravai president SR Pandian, told DT Next. 

As far as Vanniyar community is concerned the state has formed a commission to undertake caste census and had assigned Ministers to talk to PMK to fulfill their demands of internal reservation. However, for Devendira Kula Vellalar community, uniting the seven sub-castes into one is the only weapon in the hands of the AIADMK. 

The BJP took the issue of uniting Devendira Kula Vellalars into one and assured them to issue a Government Order (GO) during 2019 Parliament elections, but so far the GO has not been issued. 

Recently, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami during an election campaign met the representatives of Devendira Kula Vellalars and assured them that AIADMK will take all steps to issue GO and demanded their support. 

“Representatives of Devendira Kula Vellalars met me and demanded the state to take steps to unit all the seven sub-castes into one. Based on their demands, the state formed a committee comprising senior IAS officers and forwarded the recommendation of state to Union government to issue a GO to unite sub-castes of Devendira Kula Vellalars,” said the CM, who also assured that the GO will be issued in a month’s time. 

Pandian said that they are confident that the state will fulfill their demands at the earliest. Meanwhile, Dr K Krishnasamy, founder of Puthiya Tamilagam, is still part of the alliance and is expected to add strength if GO is issued before polls.