TN parties oppose lower cut-off mark for EWS quota in SBI exam
Chennai, Jul 24: Opposition parties, including DMK, on Wednesday came out against lower cut-off mark for economically weaker sections (EWS) than BCs and SC/STs in a recent SBI recruitment examination and demanded repeal of the new quota, alleging it went against social justice.
DMK president M K Stalin said the cut-off mark for the posts of junior associates in the State Bank of India was 61.25 for Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes and 53.75 for Scheduled Tribes out of 100 marks whereas the qualifying mark for EWS was only 28.5.
The SBI has conducted the preliminary exam for over 8,500 posts of junior associates in the clerical cadre.
The lower cut off mark EWS quota 'exposed' the BJP-led Centre burying social justice through the new quota regime, Stalin alleged in a Facebook post.
He demanded that the Centre scrap the 10 per cent EWS quota, alleging it shattered the social justice ecosystem and further eroded job opportunities for BCs and SC/STs in the services to Central government and public sector enterprises.
DMK's ideological fountainhead Dravidar Kazhagam's chief K Veeramani said his outfit had warned introducing economic criterion in reservations would break up the very foundations of social justice and "this has now been proved."
He wanted the MPs from the state to raise the demand for repealing the quota in Parliament.
CPI State Secretary R Mutharasan said the bank exam results were 'shocking' and has proven that the new EWS quota would bury social justice and blunt the very meaning of reservations.
Demanding scrapping of the 10 percent quota, he wanted all democratic forces to work for safeguarding social justice and throw out the Centre's "injustice against social justice, (the EWS quota)."
CPI(M) State Secretary K Balakrishnan claimed the cut-off mark structure was "pure injustice," and added the qualifying score for EWS aspirants should have been fixed more than that of those belonging to OBCs, SCs and STs.
Condemning the bank for fixing such a cut-off structure, the Marxist party leader urged the Centre to immediately undo the "partiality."
PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss said aspirants under the EWS category, though had scored pretty less than SC/ST candidates, have now qualified for the main examinations.
"The opportunities of backward classes, SCs and STs have been usurped and passed on to poor in the forward castes.
What can be a more brutal form of social injustice," he asked and demanded withdrawal of EWS quota.
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
