The latest 'paper leakage' controversy surrounding the Assistant Engineer (civil) examination conducted by the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission is beyond shocking and once again rattles the confidence on the state's highest recruiting body. The involvement and arrests of officials of the Commission raises more questions than probable answers.

Interestingly over the past few years, the APPSC was going about its business in relative quietness and was able to one would like to think, salvage its reputation which was in tatters in the past due to similar controversies.  The Arunachal Pradesh State Selection Board in February 2020, was also shaken by a cash-for-job scam in the examination for the post of lower division clerk.

These two are the biggest recruitment agencies of the state and sadly the controversies surrounding them has totally failed to instill full confidence in them.

‘Cash for job’ is an evil which has spread its tentacles everywhere. This despicable form of corruption eats away at the morale of society and leaves out deserving and honest candidates. Backdoor entry into government jobs has been an open secret and Arunachal has had a notorious equation.

At the heart of this practice of wielding hefty amounts of money for government jobs lies the desperateness of a society where aspirations are simply not met. Every year more youths complete their education and line up to join the workforce but job avenues are not being created at a similar pace. This skewed ratio has given rise to high competition and high desperation to land a job no matter what it takes. The Arunachal government on many occasions has been vocal of its inability to absorb everyone in government service and has appealed to the youth to become self-employed or turn entrepreneurs and become job creators. The government is correct in its assessment. However, if so be the case, the state government needs to have a roadmap for helping youths achieve that. While the pep talk is most inspiring, there are practical challenges which keep many youths from venturing into self employment or entrepreneurship. Raising seed capital is the biggest challenge and here is where the government can facilitate. Eliminating red-tape in getting project approval and loan sanction is crucial. The government must not only look at unemployment as a lack of jobs but also understand its psychological and societal impact. 

 At the alter of such scams, honest and hardworking students/aspirants are being caught up and pushed into depression and desperation. As is the past experience, re-conducting of an entire examination from the start takes a huge physical and mental toll. Precious time and energy is being wasted.