The Tamil Desiya Periyakkam has accused the Union government of discriminating against youth from Tamil Nadu in the recruitment of candidates for Railways and other Central government departments and undertakings functioning in the State.

Ninety per cent of candidates recruited in Railways and other Central government departments in Tamil Nadu were either from North India or from other States, the Periyakkam’s president P. Maniarasan claimed on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters here, Mr. Maniarasan alleged that the Central government was indulging in such discrimination in a systematic and well-planned manner. Citing the case of Railways, he said that nearly 90 % of candidates recruited in that department in Tamil Nadu right from the post of officers to gatekeepers were North Indians thereby depriving jobs to the educated and unemployed youth from Tamil Nadu.

The Railway Recruitment Board had discriminated against Tamilians for various posts in the State by appointing North Indians. In a recent recruitment of 300 Act Apprentices at the Golden Rock Railway Workshop in Tiruchi, not a single candidate belonged to Tamil Nadu. Similarly, 300 other candidates were recruited in Tiruchi Railway Division and there were hardly any candidate from Tamil Nadu, Mr. Maniarasan alleged.

The discrimination was taking place at a time when there were nearly 90 lakh educated youth in Tamil Nadu who were either unemployed or underemployed, Mr. Maniarasan said.

There were 18 Central government departments and other organisations in the State and nearly 90 % of newly recruited candidates were either North Indians and those from other States depriving Tamilians of the job opportunities, he said adding that this was in gross violation of the aims and objectives of the States Reorganisation Act-1956.

The organisation has planned to stage a picketing agitation in front of the Golden Rock Railway Workshop at Tiruchi on May 3 demanding that 90% of jobs in Central government offices and organisations belonging to it in Tamil Nadu be given to those from the State.