Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 29 Aug: Following former Miss Arunachal (2021) Tengam Celine Koyu’s last week’s revelation of the failure of the Miss Arunachal Organisation to pay her the incentive she was entitled to, Mr Arunachal Tumken Sora (2019) and Mr Arunachal Minjom Padu (2021), on Thursday spoke out on how they were never informed about incentives by the organisers of the Mr Arunachal contest.
Addressing mediapersons at the press club here on Thursday, the duo said they came to know about the incentives only after Koyu’s complaint came to light.
Sora and Padu are former Rubaru Mr India contestants.
“It was only after Koyu’s press conference that we began enquiring whether the incentives or financial assistance, if any, were to be provided to the Mr Arunachal contestants who went on to represent the state on the national platform,” they said.
“I never knew that such financial assistance is provided to someone who participates on the national platform, such as Rubaru Mr India,” said Sora.
Sora is the first Mr Arunachal to have participated in the Rubaru Mr India contest in 2021. He won the Mr Talent and the Mr India Brand Ambassador titles in the 17th edition of Rubaru Mr India – “India’s biggest men’s pageant,” he said – on April 2021.
Sora said that he was also “deprived in the Arunachal Got Talent for two years for my work as an official anchor for the event.”
Padu won the Rubaru Mr Northeast title and received the Best Casual Wear title in the Ribaru Mr India competition in 2022.
Both of them during a meeting with the members of the Mr Arunachal Organisation on 25 August received cheques (incentive). However, they said, the organisers informed them that “it will take three to four months to receive the amount.”
Sora said that it was only after writing to the youth affairs department that they learnt about the incentives.
The financial incentive for Sora was sanctioned on 8 January, 2023, and Padu’s incentive was sanctioned on 4 October, 2023.
Till date, four Mr Arunachal have participated in the Rubaru Mr India contest, the other two being Mr Arunachal Tachang Phassang (2023) and Mr Arunachal first-runner up Gemin Darin.
Darin was crowned Rubaru Mr India Global-2024.
