Letters to the Editor: Misuse of exchequer

With the formation of the new governmentatDispur, many new eye-catch decisions have been taken for implementation. One of the such decision was to holdthe monthly cabinet meeting of the government outside the Dispur alternately with the reason to reach out to the common people. Of course, during Late Sarat Singha's tenure as CM this practice was followed previously.It is a novel idea no doubt but there should be some cap on the expenditure on holding such meeting. But the expenses in holding such cabinet meeting outside the Dispur is raising eyebrows of the people. The expenditures incurred in the last cabinet meeting held at Bongaigaon was beyond the understanding of commoners like us. The food menu that was prepared to serve the ministers in the said cabinet meeting made us believe as if it was a picnic. It was an eye sore for us as when the entire state was reeling under sky rocketing price rise of essential commodities including the eatables our law makers are having a sumptuous lunch and dinner at the cost of state exchequer. I totally disagree with the local MLA of Bongaigaon statement when he said that the entire expenditure for the meals served for the cabinet meeting was borne by the public of his constituency. Does he think people are fool? The term 'chopper hoping CM' coined by the opposition is true in every respect as CM refuses to go by road even for a distance of few hundred kilometers. Following the footsteps of the CM, the entire cabinet went to Bongaigaon by air which is utter wastage of public money.

Dr. Ashim Chowdhury.

Guwahati.

APSC language paper

Through your esteemed daily we want to praise APSC for always giving importance to the Assamese language and other official language of Assam by strict adherence to Assam Language Act, be it Assistant Professor exam or APSC CCE 2020 where it insisted on having the language paper without any specific exemption to anyone except for the autonomous districts of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao. There may be some shortcomings of APSC but this aspect needs to be known by one and all and applauded.

But the cabinet decision about the language papers exemption should be only limited to CCE 2020 and not upcoming CCE examinations to be held in future as this will be regressive for candidates who are simultaneously preparing for both APSC CCE and UPSC CSE because in UPSC English and a language paper is compulsory which includes Assamese as well.

Now many students of Assam who appear for UPSC Mains examination opt for Assamese for language paper. These include both Assamese and English medium students of any board, be it SEBA, CBSE and ICSE as like SEBA, CBSE has Assamese as a language subject upto class 10 board examination and most students of Assam opt for it. And moreover since both the papers were qualifying in nature with only 25% required so even for ones who were not able to write Assamese or Bengali or Bodo can learn it easily in a 5-6 months span. And civil servants are expected to enthusiastic to gain required knowledge efficiently whenever required. Advertisement for CCE 2020 was given a year earlier and many coaching centers started employing Assamese language facilities for it and now they are at loss of employment.

So I request the government that if they want to go with the exemption of language and english it should be a one time measure and not in next CCEs as progressive step like language training to aspiring candidates can be held like government sponsored coaching for general studies for prelims and mains.

Group of candidates,

Guwahati