The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Students protest against quota

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 26, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Students protest against quota

Staff Reporter

Say it will limit ability of backward communities to equal or better others

CHENNAI : Students belonging to three institutions staged a demonstration here protesting against the Centre's move to implement 27 per cent reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Central education institutions.

The group, assembled under the banner of Youth For Equality Chennai, were from the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, the Loyola College and the Madras Medical College. They demanded scrapping of the reservation policy saying that it was a failure and would "compromise the quality of medical care as merit is ignored."

They also said the policy would "limit the ability of backward communities to equal or even better others."

After raising slogans and holding placards alleging a link between "vote bank politics" and the reservation policy, the students presented a detailed charter of demands.

The list included setting up of a commission to explore all avenues of affirmative actions and reviewing the efficiency of reservation as an affirmative action apart from deferring the proposed increase in the reserved quota.

They suggested that the proposed policy be implemented only after the commission submitted its report and urged the authorities not to take any legal or other action against agitating students, interns and resident doctors.

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