Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, Aug 21: The Itanagar Market Welfare Association (IMWA) has called on the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (APPSU) to conduct an organized drive against illegal migrants and immigrants the next time, and urged the administration to involve the market associations of the capital region in the drives, as the market community is largely composed of non-indigenous people.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, IMWA president Yumlam Achung said the association supported the AAPSU’s recent ‘Operation Clean Drive (OCD)’, but claimed that there were reports of harassment to shopkeepers, which included some senior citizens as well.
Reportedly, some unidentified miscreants picked up items and even demanded cash from some shops during the OCD in the name of AAPSU.
Achung said while its executive members were not witness to the incidents of harassment, the IMWA has received complaints and the same has been brought to the notice of the AAPSU president.
“While we knew about the OCD through the local dailies, we did not receive any official letter of intimation regarding the same. It would have helped us inform the shopkeepers and vendors, so that they could put their papers in order,” he said.
Assuring the association’s support to the student body and the district administration during such drives, he urged the state government to invite the market associations for discussions and make efforts to keep the inner line permit (ILP) violators out instead of merely dropping them off at Banderdewa.
“The violators are dropped off at the Banderdewa gate in the morning, and these violators return by evening. This also needs to be checked,” he added.
Meanwhile, AAPSU general secretary Tobom Dai said “the whole affair of OCD was carried out in a very peaceful and disciplined way throughout the state.”
Regarding claims of harassment, Dai said he has not received any such complaints yet, but admitted that “some stray incident, not involving AAPSU members, may have happened.”
