ITANAGAR, 22 Nov: Home Minister Bamang Felix claimed that the state government has addressed the 14-point memorandum submitted by the All Nyishi Students’ Union (ANSU) in September this year.
Addressing a press conference at the civil secretariat here on Monday evening, Felix said that “the education department under the supervision of Education Minister Taba Tedir has addressed the issues in a record time of 40 days,” and appealed to the ANSU to withdraw its proposed capital bandh on 23 November in the greater interest of the state and its people.
“There is a CBSE exam on 23rd and therefore I request ANSU to call off the bandh. ANSU being a student organization should consider this aspect of the student interest also. ANSU leaders are the future of Nyishi community and we expect them to act maturely,” the home minister said.
He also said that the state government made efforts to reach out to the ANSU members. “Through Nyishi legislators we tried to conduct a meeting with ANSU and NES. Unfortunately, ANSU did not turn up for the meeting, despite our invitation. As all of their demands have been addressed, we don’t see any ground for them to go ahead with bandh call,” Felix said.
Regarding the demand for transfer of Education Commissioner Niharika Rai, the home minister said that “the officer has performed her task and worked to resolve the 14-point demand raised by ANSU.”
Felix appealed to the business community to open their shops as usual, and asked the owners of private transportation vehicles to ply their vehicles.
“Adequate security measures have been put in place to ensure that the daily affairs of the capital region are not affected by the bandh call. While all government offices will function normally, state transport buses will be placed for lifting and dropping of the employees,” he said.
On the demand for withdrawal of the FIR registered against the ANSU, Felix stated that there are no such legal provisions and the state government has no power whatsoever to withdraw an FIR unilaterally.
“FIR was lodged after an altercation broke out between security personnel and ANSU team at civil secretariat gate. The investigation is going on, and the final report is yet to be filed. If the ANSU team has not done anything wrong, they have nothing to fear. Law is equal for everyone,” Felix said.
Meanwhile, responding to the home minister’s statement, the ANSU accused him of misleading the people.
The union claimed that none of the issues raised by it has been resolved properly so far.
“We admit that we have received a copy of the reply letter furnishing the action taken report from the office of commissioner education. But it has no substantial documents showing that the matter has been resolved through proper channel,” said ANSU president Nabam Dodum.
With regard to the FIR, he said that “the FIR is not the issue, but the issue is the way it was registered.”
“We strongly believe that the FIR was registered with a motive to frame ANSU executive members. It was the duty of the CMO to communicate the information relating to the appointment of ANSU with the chief minister to the security in charge of the civil secretariat. That could have easily avoided the whole incident,” added Dodum.
