Guwahati: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has appealed for peace even as thousands took to the streets of Itanagar Capital Region on Friday against the scheduled oath-taking of the new Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission chairman.
A dawn-to-dusk capital bandh has been called by the Pan Arunachal Joint Steering Committee.
“The Cabinet has already decided to call off the swearing in of the members and the Chairman,” Khandu said, before urging members of the Pan Arunachal Joint Steering Committee to reach the state Secretariat at 11 am on Saturday for round-table talks.
“We can sit together and discuss the grievances,” Khandu said. At the same time, he also urged protesters to refrain from any acts of violence.
Informing of the decision in a statement this afternoon, Chief Minister Pema Khandu said the government’s only intention was to overhaul the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) and give reprieve to innocent aspirants who unfortunately became victims of the paper leakage scam.
“With that intention, we gave advertisement for filling up the posts of chairman and members of the commission and followed it up with the laid down norms for formation of a commission and make it functional as soon as possible,” Khandu said.
Khandu reiterated that the revelation of the paper leakage scam was equally shocking to the government and to the general public.
He said that the government dealt with the situation with an iron hand from day one and the Special Investigation Cell (SIC) of the state vigilance department was given a free hand to investigate the case and apprehend all who had a hand in it irrespective of power or position.
“The SIC was doing a commendable job as proved by the many arrests that it made. However, as demanded by the general public for a free and impartial enquiry by an independent and credible agency, we decided and requested the CBI to take over the investigations. CBI has taken over the case from the SIC and investigations are on. All persons involved will be punished sooner or later,” he said.
Khandu reiterated that the government cannot interfere in the functioning of the Commission as it is an autonomous body.
“It became evident to us that complete overhauling of the commission and reframing its standard operating procedures (SOP) is the only way forward to regain the faith of the people in the commission. Therefore, to set the ball rolling, all members of the erstwhile commission resigned on moral grounds,” he said.
He informed that it also came to light that the government officials posted in the Commission were staff of the autonomous body and didn’t come under the direct control of the state civil secretariat.
To correct this and make the officials accountable, Khandu said, a cabinet meeting was held, which decided to merge all govt staff of the commission with the state civil secretariat. This way, he added, the government could take departmental action against any erring official of the Commission as they were no longer under the sole jurisdiction of the autonomous body.
Khandu appealed to all agitating youths and the general public to understand the situation and maintain peace.
“We are more than concerned about the unfortunate paper leakage and determined to revive and rejuvenate the APPSC. We have no other intention but to provide free, fair and equal opportunities to our youths through the Commission,” he added.
The PAJSC, an organisation of aggrieved aspirants, has been spearheading the movement in the state against the APPSC paper leak case.
Thousands gathered at the intersection leading to the Raj Bhawan and began sloganeering against the government at 5 am in the morning.
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Business establishments and most government offices remained closed as a massive number of security personnel were deployed on the streets to restore peace.
Besides demanding the cancellation of the oath-taking ceremony, the APPSC aspirants also demanded the fulfilment of the 13-point charter of demands of the Pan Arunachal Joint Steering Committee.
The proposed swearing-in ceremony of the new APPSC chairman and members has been called off in view of the protests, confirmed DC Sachin Rana.
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