[ Taba Ajum ]
ITANAGAR, Jan 13: A shocking case of forging scheduled caste (SC) and birth certificates from Arunachal by a non-APST citizen has been unearthed.
One Anuj Kumar submitted SC and birth certificates declaring him as a native of Namsai town during the recruitment drive being conducted by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). The person is believed to be a native of Uttar Pradesh.
The alert SSB official going through the documents raised a red flag and immediately sought clarification from the Lohit and the Namsai district administrations in the matter.
“We were skeptical about the documents and have accordingly sought clarification from the district administrations,” said an official of the 30th Bn SSB in West Kameng district.
This daily has access to the two documents. The SC certificate was issued dated 20/6/2019, and it has the signature of the additional deputy commissioner, “Namsai, Lohit district.” The birth certificate was apparently issued on 10/5/2017, and it also has the signature of “ADC, Namsai, Lohit district.” The signatures appear similar in both the certificates.
Namsai was carved out from Lohit and became a separate district in 2014, which put a question mark over the authenticity of the certificates. When contacted, Namsai DC Bijoy Talukdar said both the certificates are fakes and have not been issued by the administration.
“We will take police action as these are fake documents,” the DC said.
A senior government official told this daily that SC certificates are not issued in Arunachal as the state is considered to be a 100 percent tribal state. Only scheduled tribe (ST) certificates are issued to the indigenous tribal people, the official said.
“This is a clear case of forgery. However, it may not be rare. Such cases of non-APST outsiders using fake documents issued from the state to get admission in colleges, and also for jobs, especially in the armed forces, are believed to be prevalent. The state government should seriously look into these allegations,” he added.
