February 20

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Editorial

 

 

 

Don’t compromise with quality

After waiting for months finally the re-carpeting cum repairing of capital road is going on in full swing. PWD (Highway) is concentrating in re-carpeting of national highway passing through urban areas in Itanagar and Naharlagun. In the last monsoon, the condition of NH 415 severely deteriorated.  People of capital complex faced harrowing time due to pathetic condition of road. The much talked Itanagar-Banderdewa four lane highway project is also in doldrums. The compensation and other technical issues have put a brake on the four lane project.

Therefore there was lot of expectation that repairing cum re-carpeting of NH 415 will make life better for the capital dwellers. However much to the disappointment of everyone, the ongoing road repairing work being carried out by PWD (Highway) is not upto the mark. The quality of work is very poor and in many stretches the newly repaired road are starting to wear out. This has not gone unnoticed. On Thursday members of All Arunachal Pradesh Public Transport Federation (AAPPTF) in a memorandum to Chief Engineer (Highway) alleged that quality of work is being compromised by the concerned authority.  The Federation expressed resentment over the quality of work. Infact every capital dwellers agrees with the concern raised by AAPPTF. PWD (Highway) should take note of the concern raised by the citizens and ensure that quality is not compromised. There is no clarity about when four lane project will be implemented. Therefore PWD should atleast make sure that till four lane project starts, the capital road is properly maintained.

 

 

 

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Readers’ Forum

 

 

 

What is the real principle of natural justice?

Dear Editor,

In reference to the jocular appeal from the so called aggrieved officials!

I dare say it was rather in contempt of all moralities and

ethics that the so called    AAAO,FGEF -which is just another one of the many manifestations of these corrupt minds; has gone on record shamelessly posing themselves as victims and begging for succor from the noble order passed by Governor Mr J.P Rajkhowa, which was intended only to serve natural justice to the real victims.  By posing themselves as victims and citing their petty reasons:-

1) that it has been the norm , 2) that they've got a lots of dependents and 3) that they face risk of falling into depression ; they have only proved themselves laughing stocks and in the process have also lost the last vestige of respect that might have otherwise had as government officials and as sensible human beings.

Here it is pertinent to ask these comics a few questions   -

1. Norms though prevalent were wrong, knowing all well of which you took advantage. Didn't you?

2. What of the real victims who have been victimized by your superseding acts accomplished hand in glove with the corrupt people?

Don't/Didn't they have dependents?  Did you ever consider what heights of depression you have already subjected them to?

3.What is the real principle of natural justice?

Now in contradiction to all their assumptions of garnering sympathy and public opinion in their favour, these people have also lost the last shreds of respect from their fellow colleague government officials.

The only natural justice would be that all illegal appointees be terminated and the out of turn promotion grabbers be reverted to their original designations. In fact it wouldn't be unwarranted to penalize them for their crime against fellow denizens- the deserving candidates who lost their opportunity at employment or their due promotions who given the opportunity, I'm sure would have performed better than these comical characters.

The correction of system and alleviation of people's sorrow in Toto or even part may be a dream but we will rather cherish and cling on to it. And pray that governor acts stern on his word. Though in the end we might just be left high and dry, and they might go on with their way of high and mighty life, these people should at the least have waited for the President's rule to end. But for the lack of self respect and their desperations, it's all in the public domain now.

Let them soak in shame.

Yours,

A Citizen

 

 

 

APPSC should get an award

Dear Editor,

Through the column of yours daily, I would like to state that APPSC should get an award for the title of highest controversial public service commission in India. Not a single examination conducted by the commission is free from controversies and flaw. Adding to their feather is the latest criteria of 33% and 45% respectively which candidates have to secure for qualifying in viva-voce. Owing to this criterion, for 51 posts only 132 candidates were selected for interview out of more than 500 odds candidates. Consequently the ratio has come down to 1:2.5 which supposed to be 1:3 or 153 candidates. Even UPSC doesn’t prescribe such criteria in their recruitment process. Is this not a flaw? Is the commission not dynamic and flexible enough to cope with such situation which is bound to occur in future also?

The Manipur public service commission has discard such criteria way back in 2014. If one go through the question papers particularly general studies, this time the questions were at par with UPSC so fixing minimum criteria of 45% doesn’t make a sense which is injustice to the remaining 21 candidates because competition is not yet over as viva-voce carry 175 marks which can either make or break.  Selecting 153 candidates who secure highest marks among 500 candidates should be called for interview.

Therefore, I kindly request the Secretary to reconsider the result once again so that the dignity and prestige of commission remain intact.

Yours,

A concern citizen

 

 

Woes of contractual employees

Dear Editor,

Through your esteemed daily, I the behalf of the all contractual employees working in various centrally sponsored vertical health programmes would like to highlight a few pertinent issues to the Governor of A.P for immediate remedy of our grievance.

The first problem faced by us is that we have no future job security. As per the famous Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory: good Salary, job security & promotions are prerequisite of any organisation to keep up the motivation level of its employees for better output of that institution. However, in our state the govt. is least bothered about the problems of the contractual employees. The issue is that neither the state govt. nor the central govt owns our job security.

Recently, the state govt. sanctioned some post for technical staff ignoring other contractual employees. The colonial mindset that medical department is only run by doctors, nurses & Lab Technician should change. Whereas, in health sector many other personnel like IEC Officers, Consultants, Office Assistants, Counselors, Data Entry Operators, Accountants, drivers and host of other staff  work in tandem with rest of the health fraternity for  better health care delivery to the public.

The pick and choose policy of state govt should end for just and equal opportunity for all. Many non- technical staff have served health department for past 12-15 years. Thus, giving their prime time for the interest of public health and thus ignoring them in terms of job regularisation is doing injustice to them.

Therefore, my appeal to the Governor of A.P to devise a policy of regularisation of contractual employees on seniority basis irrespective of his/her position in the department so that natural justice prevails and perpetual nature of our contractual job ends.

Next point to highlight is existence of gross pay anomaly among contractual workers in various vertical health programmes like National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, National Health Mission. For instance, salary of a lab Technician varies from health programme to another. Such Pay disparity makes a mockery of dignity of labour. Hence, my appeal to the Governor is to prevail upon the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare for a corrective step.

Finally, delay in disbursement of salaries of contractual employees is one of the chronic issues which need a permanent solution. The process of transfer of fund from state civil deposit to parent department takes undue time sometimes achieving a record of 5-6 months.

Any health programme Annual Action Plan (AAP) is divided into quarterly work schedule and subsequently centre releases fund on quarterly basis on production of UC. Delayed release of fund for state not only hampers the programme but it bring economic nightmare to working employees.

Therefore, my appeal to His Excellency, the Governor is to find a solution for speedy release of fund from State Civil Deposit.

Yours,

An aggrieved

contractual employee

 

 

 

Promote and protect all languages

Dear Editor,

It was first announced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999 that 21 February would be observed as International Mother Language Day every year to promote the preservation and protection of all languages. The date, 21 February, was chosen to honour the language martyrs who were killed at the street of Dhaka on this day in 1952 when they were demonstrating for the inclusion of Bangla as one of the national languages of East Pakistan.

We need to protect them for our own survival. It is unfortunate that thousands of languages are under the threat of extinction. Most of them are spoken by either aboriginal or tribal people. Their extinction would lead to the loss of a storehouse of information on tropical medicines and herbs available only in these languages. We are going to become almost an alien in our Mother Earth if we lose valuable information and knowledge about her treasure. So, it would not be an iota of exaggeration if we compare language imperialism with matricide.

On the day of 21 February, 2016, I must salute all the language martyrs of the world.

Yours,

Sujit De, Kolkata

 

 

 

Let the process complete

Dear Editor,

It is in response to all the agitating APPSCCE 15-16 mains unsuccessful candidates.

Firstly, you had not been able to secure the minimum marks requires to be obtained.

Secondly, you can't make a demand for reduction of the post, once it is advertised.

In every stage of examination, there is filtration of the undeserving candidates, so that the better go ahead. We have qualified for viva, maybe because we performed better.  

We too had toiled day and night to reach up to here.   APCS examination process has already taken three years 2013-2016; let it get done within this year so that the recruitment of the next batch starts at the earliest.

Yours,

An Aspirant, New Seppa

 

 

 

Accept the truth and gear up for next APPSCCE

Dear Editor,

Apropos news items that appeared in your daily in the last few days regarding hullabaloo on disproportionate ratio selection of qualified candidates in APPSCCE ( Main ) 2013-16 , my thoughts on this issue :-

The result of the qualified candidates in the APPSCCE (Mains) was announced within a week of State Emergency. Undoubtedly, The Governor of Arunachal Pradesh deserves our appreciation and reverence for looking into the persistent demand of aspirants .Had the erstwhile Govt. continued, this could have been a big scandal, reasons best known to all of us. Countless illegal & backdoor appointments were made prior to Govt. dismissal in many departments. It is also doubted that if any Govt comes to power now, hobnobbing and lobbying for manipulation in viva voce will start.

As per the criteria set by APPSC (which of course have been followed in 2007 & 2011 APPSCCE) a candidate has to secure at least 33 % in every paper and 45 % in aggregate to qualify Main Examination. Many candidates did not qualify due to non attainment of the requisite %. This clarification was already given by Commission in this daily Dtd 13th Feb 2016.

According to the ratio norms of 1:3, 153 candidates should have been selected for Viva – voce. However, only 132 have been selected. These qualified candidates are those who attained requisite minimum % in all papers and in aggregate as well.  RTI Act is in place for redressal  for those who claim to be aggrieved.

 It is ridiculous to argue by some one that such thing hasn’t happened in earlier exams / APPSCCE and that the number of post be reduced.  The simple logic is it never happened because papers were easy then, hence candidates more than the ratio qualified. The number of post as advertised can increase but reducing is irrational and unfounded.

If the rest of candidates didn’t score required minimum marks and the selection has been made following the laid down norms & rules, why should Commission be at the receiving end for candidate’s failure and non-eligibility?? Blaming others for one’s own incapacity is preposterous.

Instead of venting out exasperation, please do have the magnanimity to accept the truth and  gear up for next APPSCCE .

Yours,

A citizen

 

 

 

 

Let there be justice

Dear Editor,

As one of the victim of the inter-se seniority, I am gratified by the decision taken by the Governor vide letter No. OM No.Gov AP/2015 dated: 10.02.2016.

I personally appeal the higher authorities especially to the Governor and the Chief Secretary to closely monitor the whole process to avoid any further manipulation by the illegally appointed candidates and corrupted officers. I just hope that this time justice will be done to genuine and deserving candidate.

Yours,

A Victim

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