Editor,
What can be termed ‘rubbing salt in the wounds’, the office of the directorate of secondary education, Itanagar, has issued an order, No DSE-11021/2/2022-DSE- directorate of secondary education, dated 1st June, 2023. In the order, the total number of 118 trained graduate teachers (TGT) of the erstwhile Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha (RMS) working under the integrated scheme for school education (ISSE) got regularised. The issue is not with the number of TGTs who got regularised but the worrisome thing is the number of non-locals or non-APST which almost outnumbers the tribals in this particular list of promotion order. It sounds xenophobic but as a tribal state, our authorities must provide all possible measures to uplift the indigenous population of the state in the first place, especially the youths who are struggling for their survival in the absence of jobs and means of livelihood.
To match the job crunch in our state, the state government should make the permanent residence certificate document mandatory for the applicants before applying for jobs in the state for at least a decade. Though this move may collide with the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 16 of the Indian Constitution, through well-planned legislation this is a prerequisite now to make ‘Vocal for Local’ a reality. The public and youths of the state have high expectations from the ‘people-friendly’ government of the day.
Yiri Kamcham,
Kamcham, Lower Siang