There is no organisation that can match the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in safeguarding social justice, party general secretary Jayalalithaa said on Friday.
Criticising Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi for taking credit for the 69 per cent reservation law, Ms. Jayalalithaa, in a statement, recalled that it was former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran who increased the reservation for Backward Classes to 50 percent in 1980. The State had now 69 percent reservation, including 18 percent for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and one percent for the Scheduled Tribes (STs).
It was during the AIADMK regime that the Assembly, in September 1991, adopted a resolution, moved by her, calling upon the Centre to accept the concept of 50 per cent quota in education and employment in Central institutions for BCs instead of implementing 27 per cent stipulated by the Mandal Commission.
After the Supreme Court judgment in 1992 on the reservation issue, her government deliberated the issue and filed a review petition. “Besides, my government formed the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes Commission on March 15, 1993.”
She gave an exhaustive account of various steps taken by her government to defend the 69 per cent reservation system.
