ITANAGAR, 18 Feb: The Arunachal Frontier Tribal Front (AFTF), led by its chairman Tadak Nalo, on Tuesday slammed the state government over its failure to resolve the APPSC paper leak scam.
The criticism came on the occasion of the second anniversary of the day when Chief Minister Pema Khandu had in 2023 given assurance that the APPSC paper leakage scandal would be resolved, “but failed to honour those promises even after two years since the commitment,” the AFTF stated in a release.
The assurances included enactment of a Whistleblower Act; construction of a ‘statue of honesty’ and recognition of whistleblower late Gyamar Padang; streamlining the recruitment of persons with disabilities; introduction of a dedicated fast-track court; providing compensation to the injured protestors; dismissing all the officials involved in the paper leak scam; and withdrawal of charges against the protestors, among other things.
“However, the government of Arunachal Pradesh has failed to fulfil the mentioned assurances despite relentless efforts from the protestors,” the release said.
The AFTF also severely criticised the reinstatement of the officials involved in the paper leak scam, and sought the reasons behind the “non-dismissal of the accused involved in the APPSC paper leak scam.”
“The assurance of a dedicated fast-track court has been questioned as the trial process of even the prime accused, Taket Jerang, former APPSC undersecretary, is reported to have not even started,” it said.
Expressing disappointment over the state government’s failure to address the real issues pertaining to the scam, the AFTF said it would observe 18 February as a “black day” by organising a statewide “Pustak Jalao Andolan.”
A Pustak Jalao Andolan was observed on Tuesday at 6 Kilohere on Tuesday, at the location where the statue of honesty has been demanded to be constructed. The AFTF burned books, and appealed to the people of the state to do the same from 18-20 February.
It also appealed to the people of Arunachal to “voluntarily boycott the Statehood Day celebration on 20 February, in protest against the failure to resolve the APPSC paper leakage scam.”
