Correspondent
PASIGHAT, 14 Jul: An FIR has been lodged at the police station here in East Siang district against the incumbent executive engineer of the Pasighat rural works division (RWD), the superintending engineer (SE) of the Pasighat RWD circle, the then RWD EE M Tayeng and the then RWD SE for allegedly misplacing the credential documents submitted by a local firm.
Shoney Pertin, an RTI activist and president of the Siang Rights Forum, who filed the complaint against the RWD officials on 7 July, stated before the police that the “accused (officials), despite having the documents in office file, are reluctant to furnish” him with the same in response to his RTI petition.
Earlier, in April 2021, Pertin had filed an RTI petition with the Pasighat RWD EE-cum-PIO, seeking “past work experience certificates submitted by M/s Agam Construction, to whom they awarded the contract for construction of infrastructure development of 5th IRBn at Pasighat (estimated cost: Rs 22.16 crore) during 2017.”
However, the PIO allegedly refused to furnish the information, following which, Pertin submitted appeals to the SE and the Arunachal Pradesh Information Commission (APIC).
As per official documents, the APIC conducted hearings with regard to the case (APIC-172/2021) eight times and finally ordered the PIO to furnish the information (certificates submitted by M/s Agam Construction) as sought by the petitioner/appellant.
Interestingly, the EE-cum-PIO, Kipa Rinia, on 3 May this year submitted a magisterial affidavit before the APIC, stating that “there are no records of any documents pertaining to the scheme – construction of infrastructure development of 5th IRBn at Pasighat” in his office.
Pertin, who received the affidavit’s copy from the APIC, alleged that “the EE is trying to conceal the official documents with malicious intention to save the construction agency.”
Pertin had earlier filed a written complaint with the RWD secretary and the RWD commissioner against the EE and the proprietor of M/s Agam Construction, demanding a “high-level probe into a number of irregularities in the execution of the multi-crore project.”
Pertin also demanded that the police “book the RWD officials with the proprietor of M/s Agam Construction for discarding the credential certificate which was submitted by the executing firm house during the tender process.”
When asked, the Pasighat police said that they have accepted the case but the investigation is pending due to the officers’ busy schedule owing to “frequent VIP visits and emergency cases at Pasighat for the week.”
