Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 8 May: The All Arunachal Pradesh Public Health Engineering & Water Supply Department Workers Union (AAPPHE & WSDWU) has announced to stage a state-wide dharna from May 13 onwards if the state government fails to fulfill their demands in regard to the appointments of 17 regularized work-charged (WC) employees in the public health engineering & water supply (PHE&WS) department. These illegal appointments were made in the PHE&WS department of Changlang and Longding districts. The union had recently demanded an SIC investigation and cancellation of the appointment orders of illegally appointed people.
Meanwhile, the SIC is awaiting approval from the government to start the investigation.
“We have sent the complaint for approval. As and when the approval comes to us, we will start investigation,” informed an SIC official.
Altogether, 17 persons were appointed to several WC posts on a regular basis in Changlang and Longding districts and were then transferred to Yachuli, Pasighat, Sagalee, Naharlagun, Itanagar, and Yupia divisions in March this year alone.
Addressing the workers here at the office of the Chief Engineer, coordination, PHE&WS department, the president of AAPPHE & WSDWU, Tadar Dawa announced that 7000 casual labourers of the department will stop working and sit on a dharna.
“We will sit on dharna outside the office of Chief Engineer, coordination, PHE&WS. Also, for 24 hours water supply will be stopped across the state. The government should immediately register cases at SIC and also cancel the appointment of illegally appointed workers. Unless these two demands are met we will continue to protest,” said Tadar Dawa. He also alleged that appointments were made for political benefit. “Most of the illegally appointed belongs to Keyi Panyor district which points that it was done for political benefit during the election,” he added.
He further said 7000 more casual workers who have worked for more than 20 years serving the department are deeply hurt by this illegal appointment. He also questioned why these illegal appointments were made through SE Miao only.
“We have 7 SE offices across the state. However, the illegal appointments were made only through the SE Miao office. This is suspicious and needs to be investigated properly,” he added.
The president of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) Longding district unit Panai Kusumdam who also addressed the gathering claimed that executive engineers of the PHE&WS department Longding and Changlang had no idea about these appointments.
“The people who were illegally appointed never ever physically worked in Longding district. Without advertisement, these outsiders were appointed in our district and then immediately transferred out. The executive engineers had no clue,” said Kusumdam.
While seeking proper inquiry, he sought early cancellation of their appointments. “Chief Minister Pema Khandu always speaks about transparency and accountability. Therefore, SIC should conduct an investigation into the illegal appointments made in the PHE&WS department at the earliest,” he demanded.
