A section of aspirants for the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) Mains have been protesting in the state against the recruitment examinations since 8 November. The situation became serious when the Commission decided to conduct the examination amid the protests on 10 November.
Some of the candidates were protesting demanding that the examinations be postponed as there is an ongoing case in the court related to the examinations.
The police used water canon to disperse that protesters outside a school, where the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission Combined Examinations (APPSCCE) were going on.
The Commission on Friday, 9 November, notified that it would conduct the examination according to the schedule from 10 November to 20 after the Itanagar bench of the Gauhati High Court vacated a stay order on 8 November on holding the examination, as per PTI.
The aspirants began the protests soon after the announcement, saying that they are not in the mental state to appear for the examination. As the protests continued overnight and early morning on 10 November, APPSC secretary Taru Talo said 900 out of 1,336 candidates appeared for the first day of the mains exam, reports PTI.
The protesting candidates demanded that the examinations be held after final verdict of the high court. While the APSSC rejected the demand, the court ordered that the result of the examination will be kept in a sealed document and fixed the next date of hearing for 14 November.
Arunachal Mirror reported on Monday, 12 November, the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) expressed concern over the issue and called for postponement of the exam while seeking the governor’s intervention in the issue.
On Monday, the protesters demanded chief minister’s intervention in the matter.
Why are Candidates Protesting?
The fiasco began in November 2017, when the APPSC held the APPSCCE preliminary examination.
Following objections by students over alleged anomalies in selection of questions, the preliminaries were rescheduled and held in July this year.
The results were declared within a week but a section of the candidates who did not make the list for the mains exams moved court.
The candidates have sought instituting an expert committee to look into the alleged anomalies in the prelims question papers.
(With inputs from PTI and Arunachal Mirror)
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