TURA, Dec 13: Employees of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) are set to have what may be the largest meeting on Monday to discuss the current salary crisis and measures to be taken to pursue the issue, after they were informed a few days back that only one month’s salary would be released before the festivities.
With Christmas festivities just around the corner, there is growing resentment among the employees following the announcement as employees’ salaries pertaining to as many as 32 months are currently pending.
A few days ago, a delegation of the employees had travelled to Shillong to meet the Governor but had to return without meeting him as he was reportedly busy over other issues.
The employees had been so dejected then that more than fourteen of them resigned from their posts en route to Tura. Those that resigned at the time included an LDA, a Mondol and several muster roll workers.
Monday’s meeting is being called by the Non Gazetted Employees Association (NGEA) at the Council premises and all employees have been invited to attend.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Sunday evening, Joint Secretary of the NGEA, Flamingbird, requested all employees to be a part of the meeting as the issue concerns them all.
“We need to be united and the cooperation of all employees is needed. I hope that something positive comes out from the meeting,” he said.
While district authorities have already given the permission for the meeting to be held, a medical team from the office of the District Medical and Health Officer (DM&HO) would be closely monitoring the meeting to ensure that all COVID-19 protocols are followed by the attendees.
The permission for holding the meeting was given by the Deputy Commissioner on the condition that there is registration of all employees, that all attending employees download the Arogya Setu App and that the meeting complies with other protocols of COVID-19 already in place.