State govt. had announced a similar quota system for Devaswoms in November 2017

The Nair Service Society (NSS) has welcomed the Union government’s move to introduce 10% reservation for the economically backward among the general category in government jobs and education.

In a statement here on Monday, NSS general secretary G. Sukumaran Nair said the decision reflected the Union government’s determination in ensuring social justice.

The NSS had been demanding such a step from successive governments for the past five decades, the statement added. In November 2017, the State government had announced a similar quota system for the economically weaker among upper caste Hindu communities in Devaswom boards.

Amendments

Recently, it also approved a set of amendments to the Devaswom Recruitment Reservation Rules, 2018, paving the way for economic reservation in appointments to the four Devaswom boards in the State. Earlier last year, the NSS had published an editorial in its official mouthpiece Service asking the State government to enforce the quota system for Devaswom recruitments soon.

It had also accused the Law Department of delaying the decision by misleading the State government with faulty legal opinion on the matter.

The Kerala Congress (M) has welcomed the decision. In an official statement, party chairman K.M. Mani said the the decision came very late with the present government already entering the last few months of its office.

He noted that the demand for reservation to economically weaker sections was a long-standing demand raised by the KC(M) and it should have been implemented much earlier.

Brahmana Sabha

The Kerala Brahmana Sabha, an organisation of Tamil Brahmins in the State, in a statement in Kozhikode hailed the decision.

Karimpuzha Raman, president of the Sabha, however, wanted that the 10% quota should be out of the total and not out of the open merit quota.

Mr. Raman said the entire process of recruitment should be based on merit. He called for abandoning the reservation system and for making merit the only criterion.