Arunachal Law Students Union , APB & OCWWB trade charges, counter-charges

ITANAGAR: The Arunachal Law Students' Union (ALSU) has sought investigations into allegations of corruption against the chairman of Arunachal Pradesh Building & Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board (APB&OCWWB), Jalley Sonam.

The ALSU in a representation to the Chief Minister has alleged that the APB&OCWWB Chairman had misused his position to award contract worth Rs 12 crore for skill development to one M/s Sunita Infotech Pvt Ltd in the Financial Year 2018-2019.

ALSU president Yurum Tamin informed that as per the RTI (Right To Information) documents obtained from the Directorate General of Training, Union ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, the firm in question — M/s Sunita Infotech Pvt Ltd — is not empanelled as a 'Training Provider' under the RPL scheme for construction workers.

Tamin, who was addressing the media at the Arunachal Press Club here on Monday, also pointed out that as per the guidelines of 'Recognition of Prior Learning' (RPL) scheme, all registered workers participating in such training programmes are entitled to get compulsory wage loss compensation. However, no such compensation was provided to the trainees and instead the compulsory wage loss compensation was converted into 'Refreshments Cost', which itself is illegal as there is no such provision in the scheme, he alleged.

The ALSU president also informed that M/s Sunita Infotech Pvt Ltd was provided with funds as mobilization advance upon submission of indemnity bond which is also illegal. He informed that there is no such provision as per the RPL guidelines for releasing funds in advance , i.e., before successful completion of the work. Tamin added that the act of releasing funds upon the submission of indemnity bond was also illegal as the 'Indemnity Bond' culture is exclusively for inter-departmental works, and all private agencies need to submit bank guarantees.

"As per the guidelines set by authorities concerned, the RPL scheme is an onsite training programme and the list of construction sites are needed to be finalized by the BOCW before undertaking such training programmes. But no construction sites are mentioned in the agreement between M/s Sunita Infotech Pvt Ltd and the APB&OCWWB, which again is illegal and a clear violation of the scheme's guidelines," he said.

He added that the courses offered under the MoU between the M/s Sunita Infotech Pvt Ltd and the APB&OCWWB is also completely different from the course as incorporated under the scheme set by the Government of India.

As per the guidelines concerned, training are provided only in masonry, bar-bender, carpenter-shuttering, scaffolding, plumbing and painting, whereas the course offered on paper by the M/s Sunita Infotech Pvt Ltd are domestic electrician, plumber, JCB operator, and computer hardware assistant among others.

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