CM sticks to his guns

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, DEC. 28. The Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, today reiterated that the Government Order in July this year, ``replacing'' the earlier G.O. No.44 , had been issued only because the latter hindered the process of filling the backlog reserved vacancies for the SC/ST/BC and MBCs.

Joining issue with the AIADMK general secretary, Ms. Jayalalitha, on her latest statement on this issue, he said even before the 1998 order was issued, the Government had appointed two committees to go into the whole gamut of issues pertaining to filling the backlog vacancies within a time frame.

Based on the panels' recommendations, the issues were discussed in detail in the Cabinet on May 11, 1999, he said. Subsequently, accepting the demands of all political parties on implementation of reservation for the depressed and backward classes, the Government had tabled a White Paper in the Assembly on May 11 this year, which was discussed threadbare.

It was only after these motions were gone through that G.O. No. 44 was ``replaced'' by the other order. Ms. Jayalalitha now termed it as ``scrapping'' the G.O. itself, possibly with an eye on Dalits votes in the coming Assembly elections, he said.

Adverting to Ms. Jayalalitha's specific argument that the G.O. No. 44 of the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department had given life to the Supreme Court's 1990 observations on direct recruitment at all levels for SC/ST, Mr. Karunanidhi asked why the previous AIADMK Government, had not taken any action to fill the backlog reserved vacancies, based on that judgment, which was in ``favour'' of the Dalits as claimed by her.

Asserting that the White Paper was a reaffirmation of its commitment to protect the extent of reservation without dilution in numbers, Mr. Karunanidhi termed as ``totally misleading'' Ms. Jayalalitha's remarks that in clearing the backlog vacancies, entry-level appointments would be made once in five years.

What the Government Order said was that the backlog reserved vacancies (11,264 in all including 4,907 for Adi Dravidars and 1,094 for ST) would be filled in five years, Mr. Karunanidhi said, and wondered whether the AIADMK leader could take credit for any such action under her previous tenure.

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Section  : Southern States
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