Assn seeks documents from capital PWD divn over illegal appointment

Staff reporter

ITANAGAR, 12 Aug: The All Arunachal Pradesh RTI Activists Association (AARTIAA) urged the superintending engineer (SE) of the capital division of the public works department (PWD) to immediately furnish documents which the association has been seeking with regard to illegal appointment of junior engineers (JE) in the capital PWD division “in the name of waiting list.”

AARTIAA chief auditor Nabam Tapak claimed that “there has been massive illegal appointment of JEs whose names were put on the waiting list, without following the codal procedures.”

He informed that the association has requested the chief minister’s office to look into the issue and sought detailed information from the SE, “but the representation is lying on the PWD undersecretary’s desk.”

It is learnt that, on 25 February, 2015, 10 vacant posts of JE were floated in the local newspapers, and subsequently another 33 vacant posts were added, making a total of 43 posts. It increased to 66 posts by August 2016.

Tapak went on to claim that, when the result was announced on 18 November, 2016, the department had selected 66 candidates and kept 116 candidates on the waiting list.

“The department then appointed all the wait-list candidates illegally, without conducting any examination,” he alleged.

The AARTIAA said that it has submitted an RTI application to the PWD, but the department is yet to furnish the information (documents). It said that, “if the department fails to furnish information, the association will launch a democratic movement after 15 August.”