Foundation stone laid for ITBS office
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 08 2014: IFCD Minister Ngamthang Haokip today laid the foundation stone for office building of Information Technology and Broadcasting Service (ITBS) at Ichum Keirap Kom village, Sadar Hills district.

On the other hand, even though ITBS is said to be an undertaking of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Rs one lakh to five lakh was/were allegedly demanded from each of the employee at the time of recruitment.

The employees are still in the dark when would the ITBS start functioning and they have not been paid any salaries.

ITBS has more than 2000 employees and it is the first of its kind in the entire North East region.

Speaking at the foundation stone laying function, Ngamthang Haokip stated that he has little knowledge about ITBS.

He said that he came there on the invitation of the ITBS administrator/State chairman thinking that the office can be of service to the public.

The Minister also appealed to the local people to cooperate with the office in its welfare programmes.

Administrator/State chairman M Hmanglholer Kom said that ITBS has already opened its offices in other districts of the State before the foundation stone for its main office building was laid today.

M Hmanglholer Kom claimed that ITBS is an undertaking under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Responding to a flurry of questions raised by media persons, MH Kom said that the office was set up in Manipur for the first time in 2013 with due sanction of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Main functions of the office would be dissemination of information, broadcasting of news and promotion of education.

When ITBS was operating as Broadcasting Service Network Limited, the office was almost crippled by a crisis caused by the then Joint Director.

Later it was renamed as ITBS.

On being asked if the Ministry sanctioned any money for office construction, KM Kom said that they were told to start office construction from their own money but no fund was sanctioned.

Again when the media persons demanded to produce documents related to ITBS, HM Kom maintained that the documents are yet to be sent back.

Nonetheless, he admitted that donation of Rs30,000/40,000 were collected from each of the employee for office maintenance.

But some employees alleged that Rs one lakh to Rs 5 lakh were collected from the employees but they have not been given any appointment order.

For the first one/two month(s), the employees were given some honorarium but after that no payment has been made till date.

Moreover, the employees have not been informed when would they start attending office, they said.

The employees were seen asking themselves whether they would lose the money given to ITBS after selling off land and gold jewellery.

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