Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

NSS should remain secular: VS

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan said here on Tuesday that he hoped the Nair Service Society (NSS) would continue its secular traditions.

The Chief Minister was talking to presspersons after a Cabinet meeting on implementation of the reservation ratio by the Kerala Public Service Commission.

Asked if he held the views of Communist Party of India (Marxist) State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan on the NSS, Mr. Achuthanandan said the NSS had a long-held secular tradition from the time of its leader, Mannath Padmanabhan. When T.K. Madhavan led the Vaikom Satyagraha demanding rights to the Scheduled Castes to use the roads in front of the Vaikom temple, the NSS had declared its strong support at various conferences of Nairs in the State. The NSS had since been following that tradition and it should continue the same.

The Chief Minister said the government had firm and clear views on reservation. The present controversy was over views expressed by various sections of society and organisations on the High Court verdict on the procedure to be followed in ensuring 50 per cent reservation to the Scheduled and backward classes. The PSC now followed the practice of making the appointments in units of 20, which resulted in a ratio of 43:57. The court order was against that. The Public Service Commission had gone in appeal against the order before the Supreme Court without waiting for the opinion of the government.

The government, he continued, wanted the posts to be divided equally for merit and reservation-based appointments. He said the highest authority in the country to decide on the question of the implementation of the Constitutional provision of reservation was the Supreme Court. Hence, the government desired the Supreme Court to decide the matter without any dilution of the reservation quotas, he added.

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