SHILLONG: There are allegations of irregularities in the National Painting Competition at the state level held at NEEPCO on November 14.
In a statement issued here, Marc Nongmaithem, an aggrieved parent, said the topics of the painting competition were changed at the venue in the last minute.
“The candidates were already given topics to prepare days ahead of the competition but sadly were changed without any prior notice. Clarifications were requested on the same day from the officials of NEEPCO, Shillong. In their clarification letter by email they have acknowledged the irregularities mentioned above but the officials have refused to rectify the irregularities,” the statement said.
The competition for children was conducted by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency under the Power Ministry. The grand finale will be held in New Delhi on Friday.
Nongmaithem said due to the refusal of the NEEPCO officials, the matter was lodged as a complaint at the office of the secretary, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, on November 27.
“So far no acknowledgment of this complaint has been received at this end. Repeated telephonic conversations were made as a reminder to acknowledge the written complaint but in vain.”
“Due to the inaction of the officials of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, the candidates selected by way of unfair means from the state of Meghalaya will be allowed to compete at the national level on December 14,” his statement added.
NEEPCO, in its reply to Nongmaithem’s communication, had said, “Given the set schedule and the nature of the event, we regret our inability to conduct the same competition again as requested by you. However, we will ensure that such mistakes do not occur in future. Further, we also assure you that the error was unintentional and the same invitation with the wrong theme was sent to the other 99 participants of different schools and communication about the correct themes was made during the inaugural function to all 100 participants.”
NEEPCO had also said it had “inadvertently printed” the national level topics in our invitations for the state level. “There was no change in topic, only correction. We corrected the topics to the approved state level topics.”