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| India-Pakistan | |
| On Christians' demand, Tamil Nadu to withdraw affirmative action quota | |
| 2008-10-13 | |
| CHENNAI: In a rare instance of an existing quota being abrogated at the instance of the beneficiaries themselves, the Tamil Nadu government on Monday said it would withdraw the 3.5% exclusive reservation for Christians in education and employment after just one year of its operation. The move follows representations from the community that the separate quota was hurting Christians badly and that they were better off without it. After meeting a delegation from the community at the secretariat, chief minister M Karunanidhi said an amendment would be brought in to revert to the old quota system in which Christians were bracketed with Other Backward Classes for the 30% of seats and jobs reserved for OBCs. Fulfiling a pre-election pledge of the ruling DMK, the state government had in September 2007 promulgated an ordinance to provide exclusive quotas of 3.5% each for Christians and Muslims on the backward class list. The two quotas were introduced as compartments within the 30% OBC reservation. "As Muslims continue to favour separate reservation, their exclusive quota will continue," Karunanidhi said.
"You made history by introducing exclusive sub-quotas for Christians and Muslims and we are thankful for it. However, when the law came into force, we found that the Christian community got fewer opportunities in admission and employment than before. There is a widespread feeling that the exclusive quota is detrimental to the Christian people, not only in southern districts of Tamil Nadu, where there is a sizeable Christian population, but in the whole state," the delegation said. | |
| Posted by:john frum |