Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 29 Nov: The All Nyishi Students’ Union (ANSU) on Monday deferred its proposed 36-hour capital bandh on 6 December.
The union had announced the bandh as the second phase of its agitation against the government for allegedly failing to fulfil its demand for transfer of Education Commissioner Niharika Rai and withdrawal of the FIR registered against ANSU’s members.
In a press conference at the Arunachal Press Club here, ANSU president Nabam Dodum informed: “We have a new development in the proposed 36 hours bandh declaration. We have received an official letter from the chief minister, requesting ANSU to call off the bandh.”
Quoting from the letter, the ANSU president said that the chief minister “is keenly interested to resolve the ANSU matter, but due to preoccupation and district tour, the CM has requested the ANSU to defer its bandh call.”
Dodum clarified that the ANSU is deferring the bandh but not calling it off until its demands are met. “We are just deferring the bandh call, not calling it off. If the CM does not agree to resolve our demand, we are appealing to the people who supported our 12 hours bandh to stay calm.”
“Our fight is not to lower down the glory of the state’s constitutional head. We are giving them a chance. If they resolve our issues, we also do not want to resort to bandh calls,” Dodum said.
The letter from the chief minister’s office reads: “Chief minister is very keen to resolve the issues of ANSU at the earliest. However, owing to his pre-committed meetings and pre-scheduled districts tours and other commitments, he will be engaged till 12 December, 2021.”
It further says: “Chief minister has desired to have a meeting with the central executive members of the ANSU on 13 December, 2021 at 10:30 am in CMO, state civil secretariat.”
Earlier, the ANSU had submitted a 14-point charter of demands to the chief minister, which included immediate cancellation of tender for procurement and supply of school uniforms by the secondary education director; corpus fund for teachers’ welfare for every school of the state, including in Nyishi-inhabited areas, to carry out curriculum activities; immediate recruitment of TGTs and PGTs against sanctioned vacant posts; revocation of the DBT system or creation of a better than DBT system as the system is not working properly across the state; introduction of uniformity of school fees for various private schools; closure of all zero enrolment schools; proper utilization of infrastructure for better purpose; and regularization of 400 contractual teachers working under the SSA (ISSE).
