Tamil Nadu will explore the possibility of reserving some percentage of jobs in government services for Muslims in view of the Supreme Court's verdict on a petition challenging the validity of a state government Act providing 69 per cent reservation for certain communities, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said on Monday.
Talking to reporters at the Secretariat, Jayalalithaa initially ruled out the possibility of such a reservation at the present stage but changed her stand towards the end of the press meet.
"When the Act providing 69 per cent reservation was interfered with by the Supreme Court and the Act itself was in jeopardy, we cannot think of reservation at this stage," she said.
However, later she said that the demands of the Muslims will be examined taking note of the Supreme Court's verdict on the 1994 Tamil Nadu Reservation Act.
Her remarks assume significance as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi had, at an Iftar party on Sunday, promised reservation in jobs for the minorities if the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance came to power in the 2006 assembly polls.
Jayalalithaa, who garlanded the statue of AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran at the party headquarters in Chennai on the occasion of the party's 37th foundation day, ruled out convening the party's state level conference before the assembly polls scheduled for May next year.
"Such conferences are wasteful and an extravagance. People are not benefitted by such conferences. So I have decided against holding party conferences," she said, indirectly hitting out at the DMK, which had been organising zonal level conferences since the past one year.