ITANAGAR, 13 Oct: The Confederation of Service Associations of Arunachal Pradesh (CoSAAP) has urged the state government to temporarily withhold the ongoing interview process for the posts of circle officers (lateral entry), alleging a deviation from the normal procedures in short-listing candidates, and other shortcomings.
In a representation to the chief secretary, the CoSAAP cited the notification dated 7 October, 2025, issued by the APPSC, saying that “only 17 candidates have been shortlisted for the interview, out of over 200 applicants,” which, the CoSAAP stated, has led to widespread confusion and doubt among the remaining 180-plus candidates, many of whom also meet the eligibility criteria prescribed in the original advertisement.
The CoSAAP stated that both the scrutiny and the interview should have been conducted by the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC).
“The Government of Arunachal Pradesh had decided to recruit for the posts of circle officers under the lateral entry system through the APPSC. Normally, when the APPSC receives a request from any government department for recruitment of officers, it is the APPSC that receives the application forms from the candidates and then processes them, including scrutiny of the submitted applications in accordance with the stated eligibility criteria. However, in this case, the scrutiny was performed by a scrutiny committee under the department of personnel & training, which then handed over the shortlisted candidates to the APPSC,” the representation read.
It also stated that “the grounds for rejection were not informed to the rejected candidates,” and the 1:3 ratio for interviews was not maintained.
On behalf of the employees’ fraternity of Arunachal, the CoSAAP urged the chief secretary to pass necessary directions to the department of personnel & training to clarify the doubts and confusions.
It also requested a re-scrutiny of the candidates’ application forms by the APPSC.
