SHILLONG: The GHADC Non Gazetted Employees Association has moved the High Court of Meghalaya against the State Government and the GHADC for non-payment of their salaries for several months now.
The employees have not received their salary since July 2015.
The matter came up before the Court on April 8. However, the respondents sought time for further instructions. The matter will be listed again on April 15.
Earlier, the employees of GHADC under the banner of Non Gazetted Employees Association had resorted to various sorts of agitation against non-payment of their pending salary.
The employees staged a three-day silent protest in the past wearing black badges to put pressure on the government and the Council to release the pending salaries.
They had also resorted to a pen down strike from January 27-29 in protest against the failure of the authorities to respond to their demands.
It was after all options failed to yield any result that the employees moved the High Court.
The GHADC Deputy CEM, Augustine R Marak had said that the Council was trying its best to pay the employees’ salaries from whatever revenue it can generate.
NPP leader Conrad Sangma had earlier pointed out that financial mismanagement by the previous Executive Committee led by the Congress resulted in employees not getting salary for the last several months.
According to Sangma, Rs 30 crore was released last year in advance for schemes for 2016-2017 by the GHADC, but the accounts are yet to be known.
Moreover, the share of motor vehicle registration for GHADC pending since 2010 is around Rs 20 crore and with the interest rate, the total amount would be Rs 25 crore. Another Rs 5 to 6 crore share is pending from the Taxation department.
Besides, according to Sangma, the pending land revenue tax is Rs 10 crore, while the pending bills related to water tax is over Rs 3 crore.