Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 27 Dec: The All Nyishi Students’ Union’s (ANSU) 12-hour capital bandh on Tuesday over the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission’s (AAPSC) paper leak scam passed off peacefully, except for the burning down of a two-wheeler in Chimpu.
The ANSU had imposed the bandh in the Itanagar Capital Region (ICR) to press the government to meet its 13-point charter of demands, including immediate arrest of the then APPSC chairman Nipo Nabum and the secretary and other officials involved in the scam.
The bandh paralysed normal life in the ICR on Tuesday. Government offices, schools and business establishments, including banks, were shut for the whole day. Vehicles, except ambulances and those belonging to the police, magistrates, and the media, were off the roads.
There was no report of any untoward incident occurring during the bandh hours.
Addressing media persons on the sideline of the bandh, ANSU president Nabam Dodum said: “Our concern is that the accused in the scam should not get away in the court. The investigating agencies and the public prosecutor should show sincerity in investigating and presenting the case, so that all the accused are convicted in the court.”
“If the investigation is being done sincerely and properly, have the investigating agencies cross-checked and investigated the bank accounts and other assets of the chairman’s family members?” he questioned.
“Why has no former APPSC chairman been implicated in paper leak scams in the commission so far?” Dodum asked, and blamed the government for “deploying insincere officers in the investigating agencies.”
The ANSU president said that the bandh was “against the insincere investigation by the SIC into various examinations held by the APPSC since 2014.”
He said that all the exams conducted by the commission since 2014 should be thoroughly investigated, and that “the government must ensure that part-wise investigation is done into all exams, including for JE, AE, etc.”
Dodum claimed that “even the arrest of the 34 persons by the SIC was possible because of the aspirants’ inputs.”
He said that the union would continue to fight until all the accused are booked under the appropriate sections of the law, “in order to bring justice to the deprived aspirants whose dreams have been shattered by the scam.”
The state government had on Monday said that it is committed to bring to justice all the accused involved in the scam, and that it would overhaul the commission, so that the faith of the aspirants in the commission is restored.
Government spokesman Bamang Felix had reiterated that no person would be spared on the basis of their rank and position, and that all would be investigated properly.
The government further gave assurance that APPSC examinations would henceforth be conducted only after ensuring “a robust standard operating procedure and full-fledged commission.”
