Congress stages dhar against injustice to its candidate

From Our Correspondent

Itagar, Nov 2: The Congress in Aruchal Pradesh on Wednesday staged a dhar in front of State Civil Secretariat, protesting against the government’s deliberate attempt to hold the resigtion letter of its candidate who wants to resign from the government post to contest the November 19 bye-election of Hayuliang constituency.

Hundreds of Congressmen, led by Aruchal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) President Padi Richo, holding placards and banners, staged the dhar in the morning accusing the Peoples’ Party of Aruchal (PPA)-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) government of curtailing the democratic right of a candidate.

Public Health Engineering and Water Supply (PHE&WS) department Chief Engineer Lapalum Kri, who is the official candidate of the Congress for the bye-poll, has applied for Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) on September 5 last but till date the State government is yet to approve it, the party alleged.

Richo informed that the Congress high command has approved the candidature of Kri and accordingly he had applied for grant of VRS on September 5 last requesting the State government to accept it with effect from September 30.

“Surprisingly, the State government is yet to approve the VRS of Kri, in spite of getting all clearances including vigilance. On the other hand, resigtion of Dasanglu Tulang Pul, the NEDA candidate contesting on BJP ticket, who is a government employee working as WC Meter Reader in the power department was readily accepted by the government,” Richo alleged.

Today being the last date of filing nomitions, the party has served an ultimatum to State Chief Secretary to accept the resigtion of Kri and threatened to organise hunger strike for two days from tomorrow at Indira Gandhi Park here.

The Congress also submitted representation to the Election Commission of India for its intervention.