Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 16 Feb: Expressing strong resentment over “the lackadaisical attitude of the state government” towards the 13-point charter of demands placed by the Pan Arunachal Joint Steering Committee (PAJSC) with regard to the APPSC cash-for-job scam, members of the public during a rally held here on Thursday declared a dawn-to-dusk capital bandh on Friday.
Holding placards and banners, thousands of aspirants, parents, students, and members of the public joined the rally organised by the PAJSC from Akashdeep to the tennis court here on Thursday.
Addressing the gathering, Gyamar Padang, the whistleblower of the scam, urged the public to support the movement against corruption. “This is the right time to raise the public voice and stand for the rights of aggrieved aspirants,” he said.
“The present situation in regards to the scam is like now or never. Hence, if we fail today to achieve what we want, it will be a failure of the entire state, not only mine,” he said.
Announcing that the PAJSC will no longer attend closed-door meetings convened by the state government over the issue, PAJSC chairman Techi Puru said that “enough meetings have been held without any outcomes on our charter of demands so far. Therefore, no meetings will be held on the matter from today.”
Meanwhile, one Sol Dodum informed that, “after observing the lackadaisical attitude of the state government, various organisations and the common public have unanimously decided to call a capital bandh to protest against the scheduled oath-taking ceremony of the new APPSC chairman.”
Stating that “the state government should refrain from and cancel this oath-taking ceremony of the new APPSC chairman,” Dodum said that “they have to face the fate of the public before conducting the oath-taking ceremony.”
Dodum further said that the public would boycott the forthcoming Statehood Day celebration if the state government goes ahead with the oath-taking ceremony.
“The bandh call on 17 February will be followed by an indefinite democratic movement if the authority fails to resolve the 13-point demands of the aspirants,” he added.
Meanwhile, Itanagar Capital Region (ICR) Deputy Commissioner (i/c) Sachin Rana informed that he, along with ICR SP Jimmy Chiram, approached the aspirants to call off the proposed bandh.
They also requested the aspirants to “provide their recommendations to the district administration in writing, so that the matter may be placed before the state government.”
“The aspirants are discussing among themselves over our request to call off the bandh. We are hopeful that they will call off the bandh. Moreover, the bandh call, according to the Supreme Court guidelines, is not permissible,” he said.
In view of the bandh call, the DC has imposed Section 144 CrPC, banning congregation of more than four people in and around the Raj Bhavan.
