Date:05/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/05/stories/2009010555520400.htm

Kerala - Kochi

Vellappally calls for survey

Special Correspondent

KOCHI: Refuting the Nair Service Society (NSS) assertion that Ezhavas have cornered most of the reserved jobs in government service, Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan has called for a survey to find the representation of different communities.

“Let the government carry out a community-wise survey of its employees to check the exact percentage of each community in government service,” he told The Hindu. “Such a survey will expose the NSS claim and reveal the fact that the backward communities have been grossly under-represented.”

Terming NSS leaders’ claim that the Ezhavas had been over-represented in government service a blatant lie, Mr. Natesan pointed out that the Narendran Commission had found that both Ezhavas and Muslims had been denied their fair share of reserved jobs.

Though forward castes consisted of only 22 per cent of the population, they cornered nearly 60 per cent of government jobs, while the backward communities who made up 78 per cent of the population had to be contended with the rest.

Mr. Natesan alleged that the NSS leadership was aiming for a Nair-Ezhava confrontation and fostering hatred between the communities.

He said the SNDP believed that Nairs and Ezhavas were siblings and needed to work together.

Mr. Natesan also alleged that the NSS leadership’s ‘repeated threats,’ that it would abandon its principle of political equidistance, were just eyewash. The ‘threat’ was being raised in view of the NSS’s assumption that the UDF would return to power in the next Assembly elections.