GHADC seeks more time to clear salaries

TURA: The Garo Hills Autonomous District Council on Wednesday sought three more weeks from the High Court of Meghalaya to settle the pending salaries of its employees.
On the eve of the high court hearing, the Congress-led executive committee headed by Chief Executive Member (CEM) Boston Marak had made an attempt to offer an advance payment of Rs 5,000 to each employee and elected MDC and Rs 3,000 to muster roll workers. But the non-gazetted employees’ union rejected the proposal.
The council had stated that the advance payment was to be deducted from the pay bill of November 2016.
However, the several hundred employees were unfazed by the move after having suffered for over 14 long months without their pay. They quickly rejected the proposal terming it as ‘too little, too late’.
The employees are working without salary for over a year and the council had earlier said it was taking steps to clear the dues and at the same time find ways to tide over the financial crisis.
When the matter came up for hearing in the court of Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, GHADC counsel Sujit Dey sought three more weeks to clear the dues.
“We sought three weeks’ time which was granted to us by the High Court and the matter will be listed for hearing three weeks from now,” Dey told The Shillong Times.
Earlier, the council was granted two weeks leading to its hearing on Wednesday.