TURA: This is a Christmas with little to celebrate for the hundreds of employees of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC), who have not been paid their dues for the past 20 months.
Authorities have decided to release salaries of two months for the council employees after the state government released the GHADC share of revenue from the transport department.
“We have received the council share of Rs 9 crore from the state transport which will be entry-ed for salaries on Friday. Earlier, in November we released one month of salaries from the revenue we had generated through direct taxes,” informed Chief Executive Member (CEM) Dipul Marak while speaking to The Shillong Times on Thursday evening.
According to the CEM, the GHADC needs as much as Rs 4.33 crore in a single month for salaries of its employees.
Marak said that the Letter of Allotment (LOA), amounting to nine crore, was received from the state government on Thursday.
“It has been given to the deputy commissioner who, in turn, will forward it to the treasury officer and it will be cleared to the accounts of the staff by the bank thereafter. We expect everyone to get their dues latest by Monday,” added the CEM.
He said that the huge backlog of monthly dues, which was left behind by the previous Congress executive committee headed by Boston Marak, has had a telling effect on the performance and financial position of the GHADC.
“Besides having to pay monthly salaries during our tenure, we are also compelled to try and mobilise resources to clear the previous balances left behind,” lamented Marak.
With the council still in a grip of both financial and political stability, Marak said the only way to boost its resources would be for the state to raise the GHADC royalty in share of minerals. Currently, the state provides 25 per cent of the share of royalty from major and minor minerals to the GHADC and 60 per cent from forest products.
“We are working to try and get the 25 per cent raised to 60 per cent for the minerals’ share also,” informed Marak.
