Illegal contracts of manpower supply in Government Organization

Baramati – In the shocking revelation, it has come to notice that ICAR-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, Baramati a Government of India organization under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has engaged illegal contractors to supply contractual manpower to the organization. These contractors do not have valid licence which is a basic criterion in government tenders for the work. There is big hue and cry from public and demand for thorough enquiry in the matter since there is misuse of public funds in this matter.

History of this goes back to the strike/hartal of all the contractual workers against reduction in their pay and for other demands in August 2018. The strike had lasted for one month. To supress this strike of the agitating workmen, Director of the NIASM Narendra Pratap Singh and Administrative officer Babalu Sinha dismissed about 30 poor contractual workers from work forcing them and their families in to starvation and humiliation. In addition, these two officers illegally granted contracts for manpower supply to such contractors who do not have licences for the said work.

There is speculation among those suffering and jobless workers that the contracts were granted solely for the purpose of earning commission by these two officers promoting corruption in the government organization. When the contractual workers approached Regional Central Labour Commission, Pune and Labour Court against the injustice done to them, the concerned Institute through a letter to central labour commission provided false and misguiding information that the contracts are granted to contractors possessing legal licences.

However, shocking facts emerged during the hearings at the office of The Regional Central Labour Commissioner, Pune that both the contractors are illegal and do not have legal licences to execute the work. Ironically, these facts were well known to Narendra Pratap Singh and Babalu Sinha and there is discussion amongst the contractual workers that this illegal work is being carried out under the protection of these two government officers for personal benifits.