Amidst the impasses in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council with regard to the delay in processing the pending salaries, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma categorically said that the state Government is there to help and support the autonomous District Councils but cannot take full responsibility of giving the salaries.
“We are obviously there to help and support them but we cannot take full responsibility for giving the salaries. We are trying to find out ways and means to figure out if there is some means to further support them, the matter is being examined. We will see what we will do,” Sangma said.
The Chief Minister, however, said, “The fact that 32 months pending salaries is incorrect as far as my information as many many months salaries already been paid.”
Conrad Sangma on Thursday said the state Government has always supported the district councils; however, it is the primary responsibility of the autonomous district councils to manage their finances.
“The Government has been supporting in every way out but as I said the primary responsibility lies with the autonomous district council, because they are autonomous in nature and they have to take care of their own finances, and their own reforms and administer themselves independently,” he added.
Stating that the coal ban has hit the Autonomous District Councils of both Jaintia Hills and the Garo Hills, Sangma said, “Because of the coal ban earlier it hit them a lot and now we are waiting for scientific mining process to start, therefore, the sources are now limited. The non tax revenue has gone down because of the different challenges we faced with the mining procedure and process, so we are yet to recover fully and ofcourse the council are affected directed, that’s the major challenge.”
He also said the GHADC and the JHADC are facing more financial challenges than KHADC.
They have refrained from employing new people, they are over staff. That is something which is very good, they are over staffed and the CM however said the staff strength however has brought down.
It may be mentioned that the Non Gazetted Employees’ Association (NGEA) of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council has served a 7- day ultimatum for the release of pending salaries of GHADC employees for 32 months.
Earlier, the CM disclosed that the GHADC employs 1,577 people, and that there is a monthly discrepancy of approximately Rs 3–4 crore between the council’s income and its salary burden.