TURA: Close to two thousand employees of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council, along with their families, are living an uncertain future under the current circumstances of a 21 day lockdown with no relief having been provided to them nor their pending salaries due for 25 months being paid.
The employees, a majority of them based in Tura, have been running from pillar to post to get a meal for their families and themselves.
“We haven’t got our salaries so from where can we buy any essential items. It is now more than a week but we have got no ration or any assistance. It appears we are not humans,” angry employees lamented.
The district council authorities had contemplated to provide a one-time relief to the staff during the present crisis but appears to have failed in their endeavour.
Interestingly, the chief executive member (CEM) Dipul Marak who should have been in the forefront of the crisis is found wanting. Attempts to contact him even by phone has not been successful as he has remained incommunicado with his cell phone continuously switched off.
“We had planned to provide essential items such as rice, dal, sugar, salt and potatos under a one-time relief package by directly lifting the commodities from the wholesale dealers but there is a shortage of food material,” claims his former deputy CEM Augustine Marak from the ruling dispensation.
According to Augustine Marak, as much as a thousand quintal of food stock is required to give as ration only for the 900 employees and their families residing in Tura alone. There are over 1700 council staff across the Garo Hills region.
“We are still trying to arrange the consignment first for the staff in Tura and gradually for the others,” assured Marak.
He also informed that process is underway to pay two months salaries of the employees at the earliest. “Because of the lockdown we are not able to complete the process. If the situation normalizes we will be able to give the salaries within one week,” claims Augustine Marak. That claim is highly unlikely to materialise for the next two weeks as the lockdown stretches to April 14th.