NSS flays Centre for ignoring the demands of forward communities
KOTTAYAM: The Nair Service Society (NSS) on Monday flayed the NDA Government at the Centre for ignoring its demands, which included constituting a commission for financially-backward sections in forward castes. It also came down heavily on the Centre for the delay in implementing the recommendations of the S R Sinhu Commission, constituted to study the issues of forward communities.
Presenting the NSS’ annual budget at its headquarters in Perunna, NSS general secretary G Sukumaran Nair said the Centre’s appeasement politics would put the nation’s integrity in jeopardy.
“Instead of the existing National Commission for Backward classes, the Centre constituted the National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (NSEBC). Barring the financially-backward sections in forward castes, all the sections have national commissions. The Centre’s lack of initiative in this regard is a discrimination against such sections in forward castes,” Nair said.
He said the NSS had submitted petitions to the NDA Government and also to the previous UPA Government demanding the implementation of S R Sinhu Commission recommendations, which were submitted to the government in 2010. “No action has been taken so far. At the same time, the government has raised the ‘creamy layer’ ceiling for OBC reservation from `6 lakh to `8 lakh. This is certainly an injustice to financially-backward sections in non-reserved communities,” Nair said. He also warned against the political trend of denying justice to forward communities and ignoring their demands, saying it will jeopardize the nation’s secular base.
Demand for public holiday
The NSS leadership expressed its displeasure against the state government for not accepting its demand to declare Mannam Jayanti as a public holiday under the Negotiable Instruments Act. “While the birth anniversary of several social reformers has already been declared as public holidays under the Act, the state government has played down an emotional demand raised by the NSS. This cannot be justified,” Sukumaran Nair said. A resolution in this regard was also passed at the NSS budget meeting.