DMK targets Centre over NEP, EIA, UPSC exams

CHENNAI: The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Wednesday targeted the Centre at its general council meet over several issues and asked it not to implement the National Education Policy 2020 and urged withdrawal of the draft Environment Impact Assessment notification.

The party also condemned "taking away the social justice rights of Other Backward Classes and the Scheduled Castes," in the Union Public Service Commission's civil service examinations for 2019 and demanded an inquiry.

The party's meet here, chaired byparty president M K Stalin reiterated its opposition to the NEP and dubbed several proposals in the policy as "retrograde" and tantamount to "slighting" states and "centralising" education.

Proposals like a higher education commission of India to take varsities in the state under the "centre's control," entrance exam for arts and science streams, nod for foreign varsities, formulating syllabus at the Central level, and a bid to "merge" the central institute of classical Tamil, an autonomous institution, with a university were flagged by the party as 'unwelcome.'

The policy gave "prominence" to Sanskrit and showed a "stepmotherly attitude" towards other Indian languages, the party alleged. The Centre was "interfering in the little education rights" vested with the states which was "autocratic," the Dravidian party said in its meet, which was originally slated to be held in March but deferred due to coronavirus pandemic.

"This general council urges the AIADMK government to strongly oppose this policy (NEP) since it is against Tamil Nadu's two language formula." To empower states to have a better say in matters of education, the DMK wanted education to be brought back to state list from the concurrent category of the Constitution.

Till such time the NEP was debated in Parliament by all state parties, the BJP government at the Centre should not take any steps for implementing the policy, a resolution adopted in the meet said.

The DMK alleged it could see the 10 per cent reservation for the economically backward upper caste people adversely affecting social justice in every stage of the civil service examination.

The party further alleged that be it preliminary, main or the interview stage, the backward classes, SCs, STs were relegated to a position behind the economically backward sections. Injustice was, hence, done and the exam result was declared without transparency, the party claimed and demanded an impartial and honest inquiry into the civil services exams to render justice.

The party also opposed the draft EIA notification saying it would dilute the existing environment protection laws. "This meet condemns the BJP-led Centre," another resolution said for not releasing the EIA notification even in Indian languages listed in the Constitution and for staging a "drama" in the name of an "eyewash" public consultation.

The central government should unconditionally withdraw the "undemocratic" notification since it was to encourage projects that would wreak havoc on environment, farmers and agriculture and also went against the rights of states, the meet said.

The party welcomed a Supreme Court judgment on sub-quota for Scheduled Castes and pointed out that the reservation for Arunthathiyars within the SCs in Tamil Nadu was ushered in by the DMK regime in 2009.

The DMK also hit out at the Centre for "overlooking" alleged corruption in the AIADMK government and condemned the AIADMK-led dispensation as well for its "failure" to manage COVID-19 and levelled corruption charges against the state government in floating bids for coronavirus related activities.

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