CHENNAI: Asserting that separate reservation for minorities in Tamil Nadu would be certainly implemented, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Thursday said the delay was due to the "cautious approach" of the government, which wanted to avoid possible legal hurdles.
Writing in the DMK party organ 'Murasoli', he said that the Muslims' demand for separate reservation was "just". The government had constituted a committee of legal experts to examine enactment of a law, he said, adding that a review meeting was held recently in this regard.
Recalling Dravidar Kazhagam President K Veeramani's statement that the DMK government had not abandoned attempts to provide separate reservation for Muslims, Karunanidhi said he would like to join the DK leader's appeal to Muslims not to fall prey to attempts of those trying to politicise the issue.
He reiterated that President A P J Abdul Kalam had told him he was "not interested" in contesting for the post again and had decided to continue work in the educational field.
On AIADMK's boycott of co-operative elections, Karunanidhi alleged AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa had understood that her party could not win the elections and so decided to boycott them.
Jayalalithaa had issued statements that her party would come back to power and conduct co-operative elections "only to pacify party cadres who were dissatisfied with her decision," Karunanidhi added.
Stating the previous AIADMK governments in 1991 and 2001 had not conducted co-operative elections, the Chief Minister alleged that Jayalalithaa had enacted an amendment to the Tamil Nadu Co-operative Act in June 12, 2001 with the intention of bringing co-operative societies under AIADMK control.
He denied that prices of all essential commodities were going up and said prices of some items were coming down.
