A Mani Mandapam (Memorial)’ to honor the memory of 21 persons who died fighting for the cause of social justice in the police firing during the ‘Vanniyar Sangam’ agitation in 1987, pressing for a separate quota for the more disadvantaged sections among the backward classes including ‘Vanniyars’, will be constructed in Villupuram district at a cost of Rs. Four Crore, Chief Minister, Mr. M.K. Stalin, has announced.

It was an earlier DMK Government led by Kalaignar M Karunanidhi in 1989 that resolved the issues raised by the Vanniyar Sangam agitation by carving out a new category of ‘Most Backward Classes (MBC)’ and earmarking 20 per cent reservation out of the 50 per cent quota for ‘Backward Classes (BC)’, Mr. Stalin recalled making a statement in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on September 2.

“The rights of any oppressed community should be protected and ensuring social justice for all such communities has been the lofty ideal of the DMK government,” Mr. Stalin said, adding, it was in pursuance of that objective that the government has now decided to build a memorial for the 21 ‘Social Justice Martyrs’.

Recalling his assurance given during the Vikravandi Assembly by-election to honour the memory of the 21 ‘Social Justice Martyrs’, the Chief Minister said the DMK government was now fulfilling that commitment.

“The rights of any oppressed community should be protected and ensuring social justice for all such communities has been the lofty ideal of the DMK government,” Mr. Stalin said, adding, it was in pursuance of that objective that the government has now decided to build a memorial for the 21 ‘Social Justice Martyrs’.

Mr. Stalin recalled in some length how the ‘Communal G.O. (the reservation schema in state educational institutions and state services)’, was a “gift of the Dravidian Movement”, and the stupendous efforts made to protect it under the leadership of Thanthai Periyar and Perarignar Anna through the First Amendment to the Indian Constitution soon after Independence.

Mr. Stalin also acknowledged the role of the then Congress leader K. Kamaraj, in convincing the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the need for the Constitutional amendment to protect the reservation for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Backward Classes (BCs’).

The Chief Minister also pointed out how the present DMK government had now legally operationalized the 10.50 per cent sub-quota exclusively for ‘Vanniyars’ within the 20 per cent reservation for MBCs’. All these have been milestones in the DMK’s efforts to secure social justice, he emphasized.

Responding to some demands placed by the Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi (TMK) leader T. Velmurugan and PMK group leader in the House, G.K. Mani, the Chief Minister said, already under the previous DMK regime, a solatium of Rs. Three lakhs had been paid to each of the families of the 21 ‘Social Justice Martyrs’ and a family pension of Rs.3,000 per month granted for each of their families.

The State would definitely consider the members’ plea for providing a government job to one person from each of those affected families, who were killed in police firing during the 1987 ‘Vanniyar Sangam’ agitation, based on their individual qualification, Mr. Stalin added.