Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 5 Mar: A group of contractors from Likabali in Lower Siang district, led by one Jumnya Dini, filed an FIR at the Special Investigation Cell (SIC) against Doge Nyigyor, the then assistant engineer, and his wife Karpi Geyi Nyigyor, Likabali PWD Subdivision Junior Engineer, on 15 January, accusing them of demanding ‘commission’ to clear the contractors’ bills.
Addressing mediaper-sons at the Arunachal Press Club here on Tuesday, Dini alleged that the then AE and the JE mentally harassed them and forced them to “pay a ‘commission’ of 12 percent of the total works amounts in the name of ‘department incentive’ for clearing the bills.”
Dini informed that, in 2019, the DoNER ministry had sanctioned Rs 1,000.15 lakhs for improving an extension of the Likabali township road (10 kilometres in length), which was awarded to M/s North East Engineering and Construction, Itanagar.
Dini and his team were sub-let the work for a 2.68-km stretch in Liru area, with an amount of Rs 2.70 crore, and they completed the work as per the detailed project report.
“We requested both the AE and the JE to exempt us from the department’s 12 percent commission, considering our heavy loss in the sub-contract work, because they are our relatives. However, they did not pay heed to our pleas and resorted to delaying tactics to extort commission from us, which compelled us to bribe them,” Dini claimed.
“In such circumstance, we decided to give them 12 percent commission, and we paid the commission in installments. We started a sting operation and kept records of the whole process of giving and dealing of the bribe amount, and till date we have paid around Rs 17,77,000,” he added.
He further informed that his team had sought legal help to retrieve the money “extorted” by the engineers by filing a monetary suit in the court of the Lower Siang chief judicial magistrate.
Dini sought the government’s intervention to “curb the bribery culture in the various works departments,” and urged the government to “initiate strict against the corrupt officers.”
On being contacted, the then AE Nyigyor denied the allegations, claiming that he did not extort or demand anything from Dini and his team.
“This is a fabricated allegation, since it is election time” Nyigyor said.
“I will take legal action against them after discussion with a legal counsel, and if they had bribed any department staffer for passing bills for poor quality of work, appropriate action should be taken against both Moli Riba and Jumnya Dini as per the law of land,” said Nyigyor.
He added that “poor quality of work was the reason for not releasing their bills, and both Riba and Dini misused their position and did not execute the work as per specifications.”
