ES Reporter

ITANAGAR, Aug 17: Armed with RTI documents as corroboration of their allegation, the Arunachal Law Students’ Union (ALSU) has once more claimed that the Chairman of the Arunachal Pradesh Building & Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board (APB&OCWWB) is directly involved in mismanagement of board’s fund and has sought an immediate investigation.
President ALSU Yurum Tamin while addressing a press conference today here at the Arunachal Press Club informed that as per RTI documents obtained from the Directorate General of Training and Union Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, M/s Sunita Infotech Pvt Ltd is not empanelled as a Training Provider under the RPL scheme for construction workers. He also alleged that as per guidelines of the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) scheme, all registered workers participating in such training programmes are entitled to get compulsory wage loss compensation which has been violated. “No such compensation was provided to the trainees and instead it was converted to ‘refreshments cost’, which itself is illegal as there is no such provision in the scheme,” he added.           
The ALSU President while informing that M/s Sunita Infotech Pvt Ltd was provided with funds as mobilization advance upon submission of indemnity bond, pointed out that there is no such provision as per RPL guidelines for releasing advance funds before successful completion of work. He further added that the act of releasing funds upon submission of indemnity bond was illegal as the indemnity bond system is exclusively limited to inter-departmental works and all private agencies are required to submit bank guarantees compulsorily.
“As per guidelines set by concerned authorities, the RPL scheme is an onsite training programme and 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 APB&OCWWB, which again is a clear violation of the scheme’s guidelines,” he said, adding that courses offered as per the MoU between M/s Sunita Infotech Pvt Ltd and APB&OCWWB are also completely different from those incorporated under the Government of India scheme. As per said guidelines, trainings are to be provided only in the trades of mason, bar-bender, carpenter-shuttering, scaffolding, plumbing and painting, whereas the course offered on paper by M/s Sunita Infotech Pvt Ltd are domestic electrician, plumber, JCB operator, computer hardware assistant, etc., the union alleged.
Elaborating further on the ‘deviations’, the ALSU President claimed that the beneficiaries as reflected through the scheme are bogus since the board has not maintained any attendance register for such activities, when it is essential to register the total number of beneficiaries under SDIS portal of the Union Ministry of Labour & Employment before commencement of training. Tamin said that even if the attendance register was not maintained, the APB&OCWWB should have maintained the list of beneficiaries compensated through Direct Benefit Transfer, which is also not the case. He further claimed that the same company has also been awarded a contract worth Rs 14 crore for executing a skill development project under RPL scheme for the Financial Year 2019-20.
When asked why they are not knocking the doors of the court for justice themselves, the ALSU President said that since the matter is already exposed with documentary evidence the state government should take direct action instead of the legal route which takes time. He said that if the APB&OCWWB Chairman denies all the allegations levelled against him, he should come up with documentary evidence like the ALSU to prove his innocence.
It can be recalled that the union has already submitted a representation to the Chief Minister seeking his intervention for justice in the matter. Neither the APB&OCWWB Chairman nor the M/s Sunita Infotech Pvt Ltd authority could be contacted for comments. 

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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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