SHILLONG: Bernard N Marak, the former leader of the disbanded ANVC-B, has slammed the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) for not paying salaries to its employees for the past one year.
In a statement issued here on Thursday, Marak claimed that he would have cleared the salaries, pending for 12 months, within six months had he run the council.
Expressing concern at the delay in releasing the salaries, he said the council, which was supposed to have been strengthened and revamped through the Agreed Text for Settlement, was instead hit by financial crunch.
“This is due to the negligence of our elected leaders who made a fortune by misappropriating funds meant for all-round
development of Garo Hills through GHADC. The Agreed Text for Settlement promised improvement of the council at various levels but the greed of the people who got elected has ruined the aspirations of the people here,” he said and added that there were no responsible leaders to man the council.
Marak also blamed political parties’ intervention in the affairs of the council for the poor state of affairs because “parties who run the executive committee work in the interest of the party and not the people”.
“Also, political manipulations have bereft the council of the status of an autonomous traditional institution, turning it into a politically-run institution,” Marak said.
