ITANAGAR, 31 Oct: The four-day sit-in protest staged by the Pan Arunachal Joint Steering Committee (PAJSC) at the tennis court here ended on Tuesday.
The committee started the dharna from Tuesday to protest the state government’s handling of the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) paper leak scam.
The PAJSC members said that the state government has not been sincere with regard to the committee’s 13 demands, despite the written assurance given to it.
The dharna was attended by members of Nari Shakti, the state Aam Aadmi Party unit, research scholars from Rajiv Gandhi University, aspirants, supporters, and guardians of the aspirants.
Likeminded people from all walks of life contributed in cash and kind for those protesting.
The protesters shouted slogans such as “Hosh me aoo, hosh me aoo, Arunachal sarkar hosh me aoo,” “Hona hai, hona hai, reformation hona hai,” “Bandh karo bandh karo, paper bechna bandh karo,” and
“Hona chahie, hona chahie, democracy hona chahie.”
A research scholar from RGU in his address to the gathering encouraged them, saying, “Let’s bring a change and fight against corruption.”
Electrical engineering aspirant Hage Butung said that, “unless there is no political will, change won’t come in the society.”
Another aspirant (for ADO post) said, “I was traumatised, suicidal and went into depression after I got to know about the scam in the APPSC exam. However, my members of the PAJSC encouraged me a lot, which later eased my mind.”
PAJSC member Techi Rana informed that “we had yesterday applied for the dharna to be continued, but we are yet to get a response. Our vice chairman Tadak Nalo is there in the SP office to seek permission for continuation of the dharna.”
Rana said also that, “earlier, it was very difficult for us to get permission for our indefinite dharna, but later, after running from office to office, we got the permission for four days.”
“We have heard that parents who are against the null and void demand are also applying to stage a dharna from Wednesday, but aren’t sure if they will get permission.”
He said that, “if they get permission, we can jointly address our issues on one ground.”
The PAJSC had staged its first sit-in protest from 26 to 28 September, and the second one from 28 to 31 October.
The protest was ongoing at the time of filing this report.