People of Arunachal Pradesh witnessed a positive outcome late on Saturday night after the bandh against the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) fiasco witnessed thousands taking to the streets of Itanagar.
The bandh was called off after the state government bowed down to the public and accepted the 13-point charter of demands of the Pan Arunachal Joint Steering Committee (PAJSC), which has been at the forefront in the fight against the paper leak issue of the state public service commission.
However, members of the PAJSC remain critical of the government and are pressing all their demands to be met within a month.
Speaking to EastMojo, social activist and President of Pro Dam Movement of Arunachal Pradesh Taw Pawl said that the state will witness more such protests if the government fails to deliver on their demands within a month.
“The government will be praiseworthy if they can deliver all the demands. But in case they fail to deliver any of the demands mentioned in the 13-point charter, we will have to begin another mass movement. So I urge the government not to create a situation where lakhs of people are forced to take the streets since it creates law & order problems and also affects the business community. If they made a commitment, they should deliver it within the next few days,” Pawl said.
A pall of gloom and confusion descended, however, after the government also agreed to one of the demands that mentioned that “any examination found to be involved with malpractices must be immediately declared null and void.”
The government has effectively thrown the ball into the public service commission’s court to decide the fate of 966 officers who have cracked the scam-ridden APPSC since 2014. The decision has now put the future of the officers in limbo.
However, clarifying that not all but only those found involved in the paper leak scam will be null and void, the social activist said, “There has been a lot of confusion regarding the decision of declaring the appointments null and void. It is a tough decision to make and it will be done as per the investigation by the CBI and whether or not they find any problem or links with the scam in the appointments because there are also many who were fairly appointed.”
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Pawl, who was also one of the members present at the meeting with the chief minister, further clarified that the people should not get confused because the decision of declaring the appointments null and void cannot be made until the new body of the public service commission is formed.
“The day the (APPSC) chairman is appointed, positions of those who got appointed through unfair means and found involved in the scam will be made null and void,” he further added.
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