S K Tamilarasan, the state president of the Indian Republic Party said that two Dalit leaders had left other parties to join the AIADMK recently as they were impressed by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s bold social welfare measures.
Addressing a press meet here on Saturday, he said that Parthi Illamvazhuthi and Ponnuswamy’s leaving the DMK and PMK respectively to join the ruling party was a sign of growing awareness among Dalits in TN about the CM-led government’s welfare schemes.
Opposing the Centres’s decision to raise prices of petroleum products, Tamilarasan pointed out that the frequent price hikes contributed to the inflation. Thus, it should not be increased in a haphazard manner.
On the lowered value of the rupee in the international market, he suggested that it could be tackled by adhering to polices advocated by Ambedkar. About the State government’s proposal to allow admission of Dalit students to engineering colleges if they pass in school examinations, Tamilarasan said that the All-India Council for Technical Education had instead insisted on students getting a minimum of 45 per cent marks to be eligible.
Though the CM had contested the AICTE’s stand in court, he sought the intervention of the Union Human Resources Ministry.