ITANAGAR, 29 Oct: The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) has drawn the attention of the state government towards the deprivation of the rights of persons with disabilities (PwD) with regard to the reservation policy for them in various government departments, and called for initiating early steps to address the issue.
An AAPSU team led by its president Hawa Bagang and general secretary Tobom Dai on Friday met Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar and submitted a memorandum in this regard.
The union in its memorandum stated that the power department in its recent advertisement [No-PSR-R (A)/20/2019] for the posts of electro-mechanical, electronics and computer AE did not keep a single seat reserved for PwD candidates.
“As per roster rule contained in Arunachal Pradesh Rights for Persons with Disability Rules, 2018 and office memorandum for the reservation of Persons with Benchmark Disabilities, 2019, three numbers of seats must be mandatorily kept reserved for PwD candidates.
However, the concerned department is deliberately depriving the rights of PwD candidates by not giving the right number of reservations for them. Also, it has come to the notice of the union that various departments in our state are not properly following the rules and regulations given in the abovementioned rule book for Arunachal Pradesh PwD candidates while identifying the category of disability suitable for the posts,” the union said.
The AAPSU team also appealed to the state government to ensure that the upcoming state university in East Siang HQ Pasighat is made functional at the earliest in the interest of the state’s student community.
The AAPSU team said that, despite the laying of the foundation stone in 2013 by the then chief minister Nabum Tuki, “no progress has been made in order to make the upcoming state university functional.”
It drew the attention of the state government towards the plight of thousands of students who graduate from different colleges of the state every year but are unable to avail further postgraduate studies owing to limited seats in Rajiv Gandhi University and high fee structures in the private universities of the state, and requested the chief secretary to immediately appoint a vice chancellor, a registrar, teachers and other ministerial staff for the state university to make it functional soon.
