A group of agriculture development officer (ADO) aspirants have made a serious allegation against a serving ADO, identified as one Tiprami Manlong. The aspirants conducted a press conference on Sunday and alleged that Manlong used two different scheduled tribe (ST) certificates to get a job and for education purposes. The aspirants have alleged that, even though she is from Narayanpur in Lakhimpur district of Assam, she got a job under the APST category in Arunachal Pradesh. It is alleged that she studied from the Assam Agriculture University (AAU), using ST and PRC of Assam.
The aspirants have lodged an FIR at the Naharlagun police station. The nature of the allegation is very serious and it needs proper investigation. It is too early to make any assumption, but there is no denying that this allegation has raised a lot of uncomfortable questions. In the past also, such rumours of people holding two scheduled tribe certificates, especially of Assam and Arunachal, have kept coming up. There are some tribes which have people living in both the states. They take advantage of it and often enjoy benefits in both the states. The authorities need to strictly carry out background check at the time of issuing ST certificates.