ES Reporter

ITANAGAR, Aug 13:  The Arunachal Law Students’ Union (ALSU) on Thursday filed a complaint addressed to Chief Minister Pema Khandu against the Arunachal Pradesh Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board (APB&OCWB) Chairman, alleging his misuse of  crores of board’s funds and schemes meant for upliftment of the state’s labour community.
The complaint has alleged that the APB&OCWB Chairman has misused the board's Cess Fund amounting to 6 crores in the name of purchasing office building without complying to government mandated norms, CVC guidelines and REC Act 2006. Armed with RTI documents, the union claimed that as per the said act, Labour Cess money cannot be used for any civil works such as construction or purchasing of office building and can be used only for construction works benefiting workers. “Under his tenure, the Board has also awarded the contract for skill development for FY 18-19 amounting to Rs 12 crores  to a West Bengal based bogus firm named M/s Sunita InfoTech which violates the guidelines of the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) scheme,” ALSU alleged. The union claimed that there are nine organizations selected for conducting the training programme by the Union Ministry of Labour & Employment to execute the scheme and although M/s Sunita InfoTech is not included in the list of empanelled organizations, the work was awarded to them.
The union further claimed that as per guidelines of the RPL scheme, all registered workers who will participate in the training are entitled to receive compulsory wage loss compensation, which, however has been violated as no such provision exists in the MoU signed between APB&OCWB and M/s Sunita InfoTech. The union also pointed out that the board converted the component of wage loss compensation into refreshment cost and even released funds to the firm in advance upon submission of indemnity bond which is also an instance of violation as per RPL guidelines as it specifically prohibits release of fund before successful completion of any such project.
“Moreover, acceptance of indemnity bonds instead of bank guarantee before releasing funds in advance is also illegal as per the rules set by the government,” the union claimed, alleging  further that the courses offered under MoU are completely different from those earmarked under the GoI scheme. “There are no provisions for third party assessment-cum-audit as mentioned in the MoU and it is most strange that no attendance register has been maintained and lots of bogus beneficiary names have been included in the registered workers list,” the union claimed. It also stated there are no construction sites mentioned in the MoU which is necessary as the RPL scheme is an onsite training programme and the list of construction sites is absolutely necessary before commencement of a training programme.
Some other serious allegations levelled against the Chairman include distributing labour welfare project works like medical and awareness camps among his close relatives without following formalities and awarding Rs 5 crores project work for construction of labour barrack between 2011-13 to M/s Sonam Enterprise, a firm owned by him.
The union has  urged the CM to initiate a SIT inquiry into the matter to give justice to the deprived beneficiaries.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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