Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh government on Thursday termed the 12-hour bandh called by All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU), which witnessed violent activities including burning down of vehicles and damage of public properties, as “unfortunate”.
During Wednesday’s bandh, the police had arrested AAPSU president Kamta Lapung for disturbing peace along with his supporters at Itanagar.
He was later produced before a local court which remanded him to 14-day judicial custody. “Being a student’s organisation, AAPSU’s bandh call during the peak admission season of schools, colleges and universities, was unwarranted. The bandh affected a lot of students apart from the common people and business establishments,” government spokesman Bamang Felix pointed out during a press conference here.
“As per a Supreme Court order, any kind of bandh is illegal in nature. AAPSU should have opted for other democratic ways to register their grievances,” he said.
Referring to the demands of the students’ union for putting a ban on appointment of chairmen, OSDs, advisors and political secretaries, Felix said it was the prerogative of the state government to continue with its routine business. “The government believes in taking services of intellectuals or people having technical knowhow for betterment of the state and its people,” he said.
Home minister Tanga Byaling in a statement last night asked the AAPSU to voice its concern only on academic matters instead of making hue and cry on matters related to the state government’s functioning. AAPSU has no authority to demand a White Paper from the government on financial status of the state, Byaling said in a statement.
Arunachal’s financial health ‘sound and stable’
The Arunachal Pradesh government today asserted that the financial health of the state is “sound and stable” and there is no “abnormality”.
“Whatever deficit the state government had to face was due to the implementation of the central sixth pay commission recommendations for the state government employees besides deficit grant by the thirteenth finance commission,” government spokesperson Bamang Felix told reporters here. Denying rumours on state’s overdraft from the RBI, Felix said there was a certain amount of excess payment by a few state government departments, which was accordingly checked.
“The RBI is also governed by certain rules and so it directed the SBI branches here not to make any excess payment to the government till a regular budget is presented in the state assembly,” Felix clarified in response to a question.
“General budget for the state is due and is expected to be finalised by the first week of July. We will place all our priorities and areas of work in the regular budget after finalisation of plan allocation for the state by the Centre,” he said. (PTI)
