Devendrakula Vellalars should be removed from SC list as they don’t need quota, says John Pandian

While backing removal of Devendrakula Vellalar community from the Scheduled Castes list, Thamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam founder and BJP candidate for Tenkasi (Reserved) constituency B. John Pandian demands a nation-wide caste-based census for giving population-based reservation to every caste in education and employment opportunities.

While backing removal of Devendrakula Vellalar community from the Scheduled Castes list, Thamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam founder and BJP candidate for Tenkasi (Reserved) constituency B. John Pandian demands a nation-wide caste-based census for giving population-based reservation to every caste in education and employment opportunities.

Speaking to The Hindu in Sankarankovil on Wednesday, Mr. John Pandian said the removal of Devendrakula Vellalar community from the SC list was their decades-old demand. While their demand for combining seven sub-sects as Devendrakula Vellalars had been fulfilled by Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, their demand for removing the community from the SC list remained unfulfilled.

When asked if its removal from the SC list would deny the community the reservation and other benefits it had been enjoying all these decades, Mr. John Pandian said: “We don’t want reservation in education and employment. Our children are very intelligent and more than 99% of our people from even rural areas don’t want and need reservation. At the same time, a nationwide caste-based census should be conducted to give reservation in education and employment based on the population of every caste group. We earnestly hope that the next Union Government to be formed by the BJP will conduct the census.”

Mr. John Pandian said he was contesting from Tenkasi (R) constituency to transform the very face of the region since he had his ancestral roots in the constituency.

“This region has immense potential to be a ‘tourist hotspot’. But MPs representing this backward constituency in the past had failed in highlighting its ‘tourism potential’. Even though Courtallam is attracting several lakhs of tourists, it still lacks basic amenities. While floriculture is a predominant profession in this region, the growers’ demand for a perfume factory to ensure better price for their produce still remains a dream. The lemon growers’ demand for a cold storage and value-addition facility remains only on paper. I’ll strive to realise these dreams with Central assistance,” he said.

He said the closed spinning mills in Rajapalayam and Srivilliputtur areas would be reopened with financial and technical assistance from the government.

Mr. John Pandian said the Central government alone could take constructive efforts to rebuild the damaged Shenbhagavalli Amman check dam in the Western Ghats on the Kerala side, which was diverting water from Periyar river to benefit the farmers of Sivagiri and Virudhunagar.