TURA: The Congress-led Executive Committee headed by Chief Executive Member (CEM) Alphonse A Sangma in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) is under threat of collapse with a group of its MDCs seeking a leadership change.
The rebel Congress MDCs had allegedly been peeved with their CEM over failure to get a share of the recently allotted funds.
A sum of Rs. 15 crore was received by the GHADC recently, a major portion of which was utilized to clear four months of pending salaries of the council employees.
Out of the Rs. 15 crore received by GHADC, the CEM had reportedly utilized Rs. 11.5 crore to clear four months of salary dues of the employees. Several hundred GHADC employees had not received their salaries since December last year. Another Rs. 2.11 crore was reportedly utilized for gratuity payments of those GHADC employees who had gone on retirement.
The rebel Congress MDCs are learnt to have been angered over the fact that there was less than a crore rupees remaining in the coffers for their ‘utilization’ even as the CEM went about clearing some of the pending bills of departments and contract works.
The move for the ouster of the CEM is learnt to have taken place on Thursday while he was away in his home constituency of Siju in South Garo Hills to attend a funeral service of a family member.
The rebels are learnt to have garnered support by obtaining the signatures of MDCs seeking a leadership change. The signature list is believed to have already made its way to the Congress high command in Shillong.
Congress sources reveal that Independent MDC from Barengapara who joined the Congress, Silgra Marak, is leading the signature campaign to oust the CEM allegedly at the behest of former CEM and sitting Jengjal MDC Purno K Sangma who was defeated hands down in last year’s MLA elections from Dadenggre emerging a poor third.
Since Purno K Sangma was himself ousted from the CEM’s chair after last year’s legislative assembly elections and had to pave the way for Alphonse A Sangma, the rebel Congress MDCs are now projecting sitting Kharkutta MLA and MDC Cherak W Momin for the top post. The Kharkutta MLA is currently a Parliamentary Secretary in the Mukul Sangma-led government.
The Congress has a total of 22 MDCs in the House of thirty in the GHADC after several Independent members joined the party since the Anti-Defection Law has not been implemented in the district council.
