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Reservation for minorities soon: Minister

— Photo: C. Venkatachalapathy

ASSURING THEM ALL HELP: Social Welfare Minister M. Kandasamy speaking at the Minorities Day celebrations in Puducherry on Monday.

PUDUCHERRY: Steps are on to provide reservation for minorities in the Union Territory. The percentage of reservation will be decided and announced by the end of December, Social Welfare Minister M. Kandasamy said on Monday.

At the Minorities Day celebrations, organised by the Department of Social Welfare as part of the week-long National Integration Day celebrations, he said the territorial government was ready to provide reservation for the minority communities.

“The process is on to provide reservation for minorities and a board will be formed for this purpose. The former Chief Judge would announce the names of members this week. The percentage of reservation for the minorities will be decided by December-end,” the Minister assured.

He said the government would take measures to enable persons of the minority communities to have access to loans.

The Minister was replying to the request of Member of Legislative Assembly R.K.R. Anantharaman on introducing reservation for minorities. The MLA said the Tamil Nadu government had brought in six per cent reservation for minorities and reservation was in place in Kerala and Karnataka too.

“There is no reservation for minorities in Puducherry alone. The government has introduced reservation in education for children belonging to backward and most backward classes. The minority communities are socially and economically backward and reservation in education should be provided to pave way for development of the communities. The government should come forward to provide reservation for the minorities,” he pointed out.

The territorial administration would take steps to fix prices of commodities and control the rates for the benefit of the people, Mr. Kandasamy said, adding, “We will be holding talks with traders to reduce the price of rice. Poor people should get quality products at nominal rates.”

Stating that the government did not want traders to run their shops on loss, he said they were only insisting on good products and reduction in prices.

“There is no control in prices of commodities in Puducherry. There should be no difference in rates here. The government should fix the price of commodities and control the prices without causing loss to traders. We will take action against those who sell commodities at high rates,” he said.

The Minister said the benefits of government schemes should reach the families belonging to the below poverty line category.

Speakers stressed the importance of communal harmony and unity among people. Director of Social Welfare Department V. Madhivanan, representatives of minority communities and local bodies were present.

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