'Fight Against Injustice of APSC' questions government over delay of notification

APSC ASSAMESE PAPER REMOVAL ROW

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The 'Fight Against Injustice of APSC' has questioned the delay by the state government in issuing notification of the November 24 Cabinet's decision to withdraw the Assamese language paper from Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) examination.

The Fight Against Injustice of APSC admin Manas Pratim Baruah on Sunday said that the government had put forward three conditions for candidates of the APSC examination after doing away with the compulsory language paper. As per the new conditions, every candidate must be a resident of Assam, their names must be registered in the employment exchanges of the state and they must be able to speak Assamese and other co-official languages of the state fluently.

Baruah said by imposing the three conditions the government has tied itself in legal tangle which is why it has failed to publish the notification till date. He added that the government is still unsure how to implement the conditions as they goes against the country's constitution.

He said, "The first condition of the government was that the candidate for the APSC examination must be a citizen of Assam. But Article 16 (2) of the Constitution states no citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of, any employment or office under the State. The most important thing is that according to Article 16 (3) of the Constitution, some states can get exemption in this case and can make arrangements for reservation for employment on the basis of residence. However, there must be a valid reason for reservation in case of residence-based employment."

He added, "However, only the Parliament of India has the power to make reservations in accordance with Article 16 (3) of the Constitution. Therefore, the conscious people of Assam should understand why the government has not been able to prepare a notification to this day by incorporating the terms they have mentioned while withdrawing the language paper. This is because in case of employment reservation based on residence, the reservation cannot be made by the state government."

Baruah said, "The second condition of the government was that the candidates should register their names in the Employment Exchanges of Assam.

In this connection, we would like to inform the people of Assam that we have already sent a 100 page informative report on the Employment Exchanges and job creation in the month of September. But where even an Afghan citizen can make a fake Aadhaar card in Assam, it will not be difficult for outside state candidates to register their names online in Employment Exchanges in Assam."

"The third condition of the government was that the candidates must be fluent in Assamese and co-official state languages. But is there any test to determine the spoken language fluency in the whole country without any written exam? Moreover, the Supreme Court has a clear principle that rule of the game cannot be changed in the middle of the selection process," he added.

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