SNDP demands amendment to Constitution

By Our Staff Reporter

KOLLAM, DEC. 31.The SNDP Yogam has demanded an amendment to Article 16(4) of the Constitution to ensure that Socially and Educationally Backward classes are excluded from being identified on economic criteria.

In a memorandum to the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, today, copies of which were released to the press here, by the SNDP Yogam general secretary, Mr. Vellappally Natesan, it has also been demanded that till the time such an amendment is effected, the income limit fixed by the Union Government at Rs. 1 lakh, pursuant to the Prasad Commission Report, the limit should be raised to Rs. 5 lakhs in the matter of reservation of the Socially and Economically Backward Classes to civil posts and services and that the same should be applicable to public sector undertakings and financial institutions including public sector banks.

The Yogam wanted the Reserve Bank of India to issue licence for starting a banking company and the implementation of a constitutional amendment bill seeking to reserve 33 per cent of the seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for women.

The memorandum also calls for adequate and proportionate reservation for members of the backward communities and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.

The other demands include the declaration of Sree Narayana jayanthi and samadhi days as holidays, production of a film of international standards on Sree Narayana Guru and inclusion of Sree Narayana Guru's teachings in the school and college syllabi.

New office-bearers take charge

The new office-bearers of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam elected on Friday at the 96th annual general body meeting, formally took charge at the Yogam headquarters at Kollam this morning.

The Yogam president, Mr. C.K. Vidyasagar, the vice-president, Mr. K.N. Sathyapalan, the general secretary, Mr. Vellappally Natesan and the devaswom secretary, Mr. M.B. Sreekumar, were welcomed into the yogam headquarters by the Yogam secretary, Prof. G. Sathyan, and the SNDP Kollam union president, Mr. D. Prabha.

The new office-bearers arrived here after paying homage at the Sivagiri Maha Samadhi and garlanding the Sree Narayana Guru statue installed at the shrine within the Yogam headquarters complex.

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