Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, Aug 25: The aggrieved aspirants who had appeared for the exam conducted by the Arunachal Pradesh Staff Selection Board (APSSB) held a silent protest across the state on Tuesday as part of their observation of ‘Black Day’ against non-fulfillment of demands.
Here in the capital, the APSSB Aspirants’ Interim Committee for Justice and Reformation (ICJR) held a silent protest outside the civil secretariat.
Speaking to reporters on behalf of the candidates, advocate SD Loda reiterated that their demands remain the same.
“We have been writing to the higher authorities from the first day, but our demands are still going unheard,” Loda said, adding: “We are also still unaware of the details of the high-level inquiry committee report and the administrative action against the IAS officers involved.”
“We also asked for the UDC exam to be recalled since there were a few candidates involved in that exam, as well, but nothing has been done so far,” he said.
Loda said the ICJR members were told that “making the report public would have a negative impact on the criminal proceedings of the case. However, the aspirants are of the opinion that the criminal investigation is almost complete and the negative repercussions of the case should not be a concern.”
Informing that a chargesheet should be filed within three months, Loda said “it has now been five months and no chargesheet has been filed. The chief secretary keeps saying that the chargesheet will be filed this week, the next month, and so on.”
The candidates demanded that the officers involved in the scam be either handed “forcible retirement” or terminated from their jobs, besides taking administrative action against them at the earliest.
They also reiterated the demand to make public the high-level inquiry committee report at the earliest, and to recall and re-conduct the UDC exam.
The LDC/JSA examination was held on 2 February this year. The results were declared on 14 February, and a blank answer sheet with the roll number 2025546 was seen doing the rounds on social media on 15 February, creating a furore among candidates.
A total of 315 candidates, including the one whose OMR sheet was alleged to be suspicious, had been shortlisted for the skill test.
On 3 March, a high-level inquiry committee, comprising Principal Resident Commissioner Jitendra Narain and Home Commissioner Kaling Tayeng, had been constituted by the government to inquire into the alleged malpractices in the examination.
The committed submitted its report to the government on 24 March.
