Exclusive quota for minorities: Karunanidhi

Chennai, July 5: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today asserted that the government would definitely provide exclusive reservation for Muslims and Christians in education and jobs.

In a statement here, he said the DMK government was committed to provide exclusive reservation for the minorities and appealed to them not to succumb to forces, which were trying to politicise the issue.

Referring to reports that the Andhra Pradesh government was contemplating to promulgate an ordinance to provide four per cent exclusive reservation for Muslims, he said the Tamil Nadu government was studying various legal aspects in this regard.

He said the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) leader K Veeramani had rightly pointed out that the demand for exclusive reservation by the Muslims was just and the government should not bring in any legislation in haste and allow it to be struck down by a court of law.

Keeping this in view, he had appointed a committee, comprising legal experts and officials to carefully examine the issue. This was the reason for the delay and it never meant that the government had given up the issue, Mr Karunanidhi clarified.

UNI