ITANAGAR, 25 Jul: The All Nyishi Students’ Union (ANSU) on Monday gave the state government another 15 days to fulfil its six unfulfilled demands, including the demand for making production of permanent residence certificate (PRC) mandatory by the candidates appearing for the examinations conducted by the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC).
The union said that, while some of its vital demands remain “unfulfilled and untouched,” the response of the government to some of its demands was unsatisfactory.
“It is imperative to apprise you that despite the expiry of the 23 days ultimatum, the reformatory measures being undertaken are unfortunately inadequate and a gross half-hearted effort, which fails to address the issues which are of paramount importance,” the union said in a letter to the chief minister.
Stating that the PRC issue is one of the most important and non-negotiable issues, “which should have been immediately addressed,” the union requested the chief minister to initiate necessary action for early implementation of the same.
The ANSU further stated that its demands for “compulsory inclusion of regional topics, ie, Arunachal Pradesh in specific and Northeast India in general in APPSC examinations” and putting in place a robust and transparent RTI framework are yet to be fulfilled.
The union stated that it is dissatisfied with the “half-hearted” response to its demand for setting up a dedicated appraisal and grievance redressal cell to address any examination-related grievances within 30 days; mandatory upholding of the 1:3 ratio for viva voce; and the criteria for appointing the chairman and members of the APPSC.
It said that, although an order issued by the APPSC on 8 July mentions a three-member grievances management team for examination-related issues, it fails to address the main issues.
“The order is silent on the nature of the mentioned grievance redressal team, ie, whether it is a permanent setup or a temporary measure. Further, the order does not specify any time-bound framework within which the grievances redressal team is to address any examination-related grievances,” the union said.
Regarding the demand for upholding the 1:3 ratio for viva voce, the union stated that “the primary genesis of this issue is the APPSCCE (2020-21) mains result, whereby the standard ratio of 1:3 was not maintained as only 141 candidates were called for the viva voce against 111 posts, which mathematically translates into the ratio of 1:1.27, which is absurd and clearly illogical.
“This precedence undermines the significance of 275 marks allotted to the viva voce, thus killing the spirit of fair competition,” it said.
“In the previous representation, we had placed a demand for revocation of Clause 2 (III) of the office memorandum, 2022 (No AR-23025/2/2022-SECT-1-AR/203), dated 10 June, 2022. Owing to that demand, a subsequent notification vide No PERS-36/2/2022 dated 11 July, 2022 was notified by the department of personnel, which reiterates the contentious Clause 2 (III) of office memorandum, 2022. Consequently, this implies that no changes have been incorporated to accommodate the ANSU’s demand for the necessary changes and thus the mandatory upholding of 1:3 ratio in personality test still remains ambiguous, unspecified and vague.”
With regard to appointment of the chairman and members of the APPSC, the union said that its “suggestions for the appointment of the chairman of the APPSC from among the former or retired civil servants of Arunachal Pradesh and the members of APPSC comprising of at least one academician and one retired civil servant having an experience of up to 10 years or more under the central or the state government, has not been adhered to, even after the expiry of the 25 days’ ultimatum.”
The ANSU demanded that action be initiated on this front at the earliest.
Stating that no further delay of any nature will be entertained, the union said that, “until and unless all the issues are fully resolved, strictly no examination-related processes and new advertisement of any kind from the APPSC are to be initiated.”
The union, however, commended the chief minister for his “positive and prompt response” to the demand for “necessary reformations in the recruitment process of Arunachal Pradesh Police Service (APPS-EG, ie, DSP).”
