Congress stages protest against state govt's silence over VRS request

Lapalum Kri is a candidate of Congress for the by-poll, had applied for Voluntary Retirement Scheme on September 5

Congressmen on Wednesday staged a dharna on the last day of filing nomination to the November 19 bypoll to Hayuliang constituency protesting against the Arunachal Pradesh government's alleged "deliberate attempt" to curtail the democratic right of a candidate by not yet giving its approval to the Congress nominee's VRS request.

The party also submitted representation to the Election Commission for its intervention on this issue.

Hundreds of Congressmen led by Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) President Padi Richo, holding placards and banners, staged the dharna in front of the state civil secretariat in the morning accusing the Peoples' Party of Arunachal (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 official candidate of Congress for the by-poll, had applied for Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) on September 5 last but till date the state government was yet to give its nod, the party alleged.

Richo said that the Congress high command had approved the candidature of Kri and accordingly he had applied for 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, resignation 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 nominations, the party has served an ultimatum to the state chief secretary to accept the resignation of Kri and threatened to organise hunger strike for two days from tomorrow at Indira Gandhi Park here.