Centre should go for caste census- PMK

PMK President G K Mani, on Tuesday, said that central government should undertake a caste census for proper implementation of OBC reservation.

"OBCs form the majority of the population in the country and following Mandal commission's recommendation 27 percentage reservation but the reservation is not followed properly. However, the reservation is not sufficient for OBC communities and so caste census should be undertaken by the central government to extend reservation for OBC communities. If the central government does not undertake caste census, states should go for caste census", said Mani, while addressing the media, at Secretariat.

The PMK leader met Chief Minister M K Stalin to thank him for issuing the GO on the implementation of Vanniyar reservation. He was followed by PMK Founder S Ramadoss, who also called Stalin over phone and thanked him for the GO.

Meanwhile, Mani said that though various commissions including Sattanathan, Ambasankar and Janarthanan commissions recommended separate reservation for Vanniyar community it has been provided only in 2021 and though it is late we thank the state government for the implementation of the reservation.

When asked whether the commissions functioned in favour of Vanniyar community, Mani replied that when the commissions were formed neither PMK nor Vanniyar sangams were founded and no protests were staged. The commissions recommended reservation based on the social conditions of Vanniyar community.

He also said that when we look at the SSLC or plus two results the districts with Vanniyar population occupy the bottom which indicates their social position. Further, more than 71 percentage of the huts in the state are present in the northern part of Tamil Nadu which also indicates that Vanniyar community is a backward community and an internal reservation is required for their upliftment.

He further said that due to the internal reservation BCs, BC Muslims and Dalits will not be affected and so the internal reservation forms the base of social justice in the state.