TURA: GHADC Chief Executive Member Dipul R Marak said on Friday it was only through cooperation between the executive and the employees that the problem of non-payment of salary could be solved.
“Non-cooperation cannot bring any solution to the problems facing the district council, it is only through cooperation that we can work together and find ways to resolve our problems,” said the CEM while speaking to The Shillong Times over phone on Friday evening.
He was returning from a meeting with Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma in Shillong. “We held discussions with the state government to find ways to generate sufficient funds and ultimately it will be our council employees who will have to work in that direction. I have time and again invited them for discussion across the table about the current financial situation and I am happy they have finally responded,” said Marak.
He revealed that the only way possible for the GHADC to clear the backlog of pending salary, which has touched 15 months, was to seek a bailout package because funds from royalty share that the council used to regularly receive from the state has already been exhausted. “We will find ways to solve the problem. When I took over the GHADC six months ago, the previous EC headed by Boston Marak left behind only Rs 50,000 in the council treasury. Despite this acute fund shortage we, with support from the state government and chief minister Conrad Sangma, was able to clear four months of pending salaries of the employees,” narrated the CEM.
He said Rs 18 crore was obtained from the state government as royalty and another Rs 4.11 crore from direct revenue collected by the district council.
District Council Affairs Minister James Sangma had said in the Assembly that the state government was not the one to pay salary to the autonomous bodies’ employees and ADCs earn revenue to meet their expenses.
“Out of the Rs 18 crore was royalty from major mineral (Rs 15 crore), minor mineral (Rs 1.15 crore) and motor vehicle tax (Rs 2.26 crore). We were also able to disburse additional money to the tune of Rs 2.17 crore for leave salary, gratuity and children’s loans which had been sanctioned way back in 2010 but were never disbursed by the previous executive committees. We are trying our best to make the GHADC progress and ensure our employees are well looked after,” a confident CEM Dipul Marak stated.
