Court freezes salary of civilian staff of MES Shillong

SHILLONG: The District Court Judge, in an order on April 9, 2016, has frozen the Public Fund Account of the Chief Engineer’s Office of MES located in Shillong and the MES Welfare Officer has taken cognizance of the court’s directive.
MES Welfare Officer P.K. Chettri termed the directive of the court as unprecedented and said that the order has affected the civilian staff and officers whose salary have not been credited for the month of April.
The verdict is a result of a law suit filed by a building contractor against the MES Chief Engineer who is also the accepting officer of the contract for which the aggrieved party sought redressal.
Chettri said that the Chief Engineer should have been accounted for rather than punishing all staffs who do not have any executive powers on that matter.
“Surprisingly neither the personal account of the Chief Engineer has been ceased nor his salary has been withheld and, not withstanding, all hardship has been brought upon to the staff, whereas the salary of the Chief Engineer has been credited much to everyone’s dissent,” he said.
He pointed out that as the organisation is a mix of army and civilians staff, the verdict passed has been harsh on civilian staffs only and lenient on the armed personnel as the salary of the uniformed staff have been credited on time.