ITANAGAR, 19 May: The Arunachal Indigenous Students’ Union has raised objection to the appointment of non-APST persons as co-opted members of the gram panchayat level interim committee in Vijaynagar gram segment in Changlang district.
In a complaint letter to the panchayati raj minister, the union stated that “a total of 16 non-indigenous persons have been appointed as members of the interim committee on dissolution of the existing gram panchayat upon the end of its tenure by the office of the EAC, Vijaynagar.”
Stating that Vijaynagar is a 100 percent reserved constituency like any other panchayat segments in Arunachal Pradesh, the union said that the appointment of non-APST persons as members of the interim committee
“is violative of the rights of the indigenous people of the area.”
“The act on the part of the administration in appointing non-local people to the local governance is very dangerous for the interest of the local tribal people of Changlang district and the state of Arunachal Pradesh as a whole,” the union said in the letter.
It said also that there have been sustained objections from the indigenous people of Arunachal “with regard to the illegal practice of participation of non-locals in the rural local government in various pockets of the state, which could dilute the safeguards provided to the state and its people by the Constitution of India.”
“Such practice is definitely threatening the very existence of the indigenous people, its tradition, customs and cultural heritage, which is against the provision of Fundamental Right under Article 29 of Constitution of India,” it said.
The union sought “the authority’s urgent intervention on the issue to resolve the discrepancies by recalling/modifying or alerting the said order by deleting the non-indigenous persons from the lists and appointing local people in their places.”
