JOIN US In a bid to improve living standards of the marginalised and minorities, the DMK made several promises in its manifesto, including 30 per cent reservation for women in central government jobs, proper implementation of reservation in PSUs for differently-abled, recognition of transgenders as the third gender and boost to self-respect (inter-caste) marriages across the country.
In its election manifesto released by party chief M Karunanidhi on Tuesday, the DMK promised to include the fishing community in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list and create a separate ministry at the Centre to protect their interests in relation to other countries.
Promising to espouse the cause of Tamils living across the globe, the DMK promised to press the Centre to take steps for conducting a referendum among the Tamils in Sri Lanka and appoint only Tamil envoys to nations which have a sizeable diaspora.
While vowing to redeem Katchatheevu, an islet off Tamil Nadu coast ceded to Sri Lanka by India in 1976, the DMK also promised to work for resettlement of Lankan refugees in India, after ascertaining their willingness.
Sticking to its demand for implementation of the contentious Sethusamudram project, which it claimed would promote economic development in southern Tamil Nadu, the DMK said it would create a congenial atmosphere to again begin work by expediting disposal of cases pending before the apex court.
The party also promised to seek waiver of farm loans, necessary laws to ensure construction of a second spaceport at Kulasekarapatinam in Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu, institutionalise Tamil as the official court language and additional language in central government institutions, appointment of 10 lakh women across the country as people welfare workers and a Constitutional amendment to abolish death penalty.