Orgs allege illegal promotion of contingency staffer

Staff Reporter

ITANAGAR, 3 May: The Param Puttu Circle Youth Association and the All Arunachal Volunteers Sena have demanded that the state government immediately enquire into the alleged “illegal promotion” of a contingency staffer in the Lower Subansiri district agriculture department.

Addressing media persons at the press club here on Tuesday, AAVS president Tania June said that “the case is from the year 2019, when the association dug out the truth through RTI. Thereafter, the association made efforts to remove the appointee at the district level but was a failure.”

He said that the AAVS had submitted a letter to the then chief secretary and also lodged a complaint with Agriculture Minister Tage Taki and Education Minister Taba Tedir regarding the matter.

Taki and Tedir are elected representatives from the district.

“Failing to address the matter by the local representatives and CS, we submitted a complaint to SIC. However, after almost six months, SIC is yet to solve the matter,” he said, adding that the SIC said that “it is not permitted by the government to investigate the case.”

“Now, our question is, why is the government not allowing the SIC to perform an investigation into the matter despite submission of all relevant documents of illegal appointment?” June added.

He said that “the delay in investigation and meaningless response by the SIC” caused the association to come to the media. He appealed to the SIC and the district police to immediately investigate the case.

June further claimed that the appointment was made by the DPC committee chairman-cum-EAC Tame Yajum and four other board members who are administrative officers of Lower Subansiri district.

“The board should have promoted the appointee according to the seniority basis. Surprisingly, the board promoted the staff who were in 22 serial numbers, ignoring the top staff in the seniority list,” he said.

He further said that the staffer who was promoted had been appointed as a contingency peon in 2016 and her name was in number 22 in the seniority list. “The selection is biased and infringement of the right to promotion, equal opportunity for the rest 21 staffers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the DPC board claimed that the Lower Subansiri deputy director of agriculture “has not maintained seniority list of the 24 contingency posts sanctioned against the district.”

The board also observed that no appointment order was issued to most of the contingency workers and no service book was opened and available for the board to peruse.

It further added that “the only criteria left with the board for considering a suitable candidate for appointing against vacant post was based on performance report submitted by the controlling officer.”

The Arunachal Times has learnt that the DPC board was misled by the then Lower Subansiri deputy director of agriculture. It is also learnt that the matter is sub judice in the court.