ITANAGAR, Aug 17: The All Puroik Students’ Union (APSU) has demanded appointment of persons with adequate knowledge of the problems of the Puroik community as the chairman, vice chairman and members of the Puriok Welfare Board (PWB).
The three-year term of the PWB expired in May this year.
“The persons to be appointed to the posts must be free to dedicate themselves full-time to work for the welfare of the community,” the union said.
In a representation to the governor, the union stated that some of the busiest bureaucrats, such as the principal secretary, the home commissioner and the home secretary, who had little or no knowledge about the community, had been appointed as the board’s chairman.
“The intention of the government to appoint such qualified officers might be good, but in reality they failed to deliver services for the welfare of the community,” the union alleged.
“Because of the blunder made by the government, the whole Puroik community is suffering despite the creation of the board and allocation of funds,” it said.
“There was no annual action plan, no budget provision in the board in the last three years.”
Urging the government to reconstitute the board, the union demanded that the chairman, the vice-chairman and the board members “must be appointed in prior consultation with the members and various organizations of the Puroik community.”
It demanded that the chairman be appointed for the full tenure and should not be changed in the middle of the year.
The union said that the chairman of the expired welfare board had been changed four times during its three-year term from 2017-2020.
It also stated that the government could consider appointing qualified persons from the Puroik community in the board, which, the union said, would help uplift the community.
