TURA, Dec 14: Employees of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council under the aegis of its Non Gazetted Employees Association (NGEA) have rejected the government’s offer of one-month salary payout and are demanding nothing short of a minimum of three months’ dues under the new revised salary structure.
Besides this, they have also sought the removal of the government-appointed Secretary to the Council, state civil service officer Rikse R Marak, who has been overseeing the functioning of the autonomous body for the last many months. The association has given two days’ time to the government to replace her.
Several hundred workers of the oldest autonomous council in the region have been reeling under a severe financial strain on account of not having received their monthly dues for almost 30 long months.
On Monday, the employees held a meeting at the Council premises to discuss the recent decision of the government to release the dues of the month of July, 2018, under the old pay scale. The employees have decided to reject the one-month payout and have asked that a minimum of three months under the revised package be given.
At the meeting, several employees of the Council spoke about the hardships they faced due to non-receipt of their monthly dues.
Many have been critical of the Council authorities to seek payment of dues under the old pay package.
“A decision was taken to provide the employees with a new revised pay since there has been no revision of salaries for a long time. So why the old package?” questioned many employees.
The Council authorities, on the other hand, maintain that revision is not for previous dues and claim paucity of funds has prevented the authorities from going ahead with the decision.
However, employees, including the NGEA, allege that a move is afloat to divert some of the funds being released for salary disbursement.
They further allege that some of the outgoing MDCs have been pushing for payment of bills to suppliers and contractors, many of whom allegedly received contracts and works on account of their proximity to the elected members.