TURA, Dec 29: Anger and disappointment is palpable across the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council after hundreds of its staff observed Christmas without receiving their two-month salary which had been promised to them.
A blame game has since started with Council officials blaming the State Bank of India after it shut work at 5 pm on December 23 for the Christmas holidays.
“Not a single non gazette employee of the Council have received the two months disbursement of salary even after Christmas,” complained leaders of the Non Gazetted Employees Association (NGEA) which has hundreds of staff as its members.
The NGEA has also been partly blamed for this fiasco.
“When the GHADC authorities had earmarked two months salary (July and August, 2018) for disbursement the association refused to accept and continued their agitation losing precious time which could have been used to clear the paperwork in the accounts section,” blamed some within the administration.
The protest had touched the third week before an agreement was reached between the two warring sides.
A verbal spate between some senior accounts officials of the GHADC and the employees association members has since gone viral with a blame game taking place.
The employees have blamed the accounts officials of delaying the paperwork as the reason for the banks not being able to complete formalities.
Countering that, accounts officials accuse SBI of halting work on 23rd evening for the delay.
“Only by December 22nd we could start the process of clearing salary bills for the bank. But the bank went on holiday from the next evening itself and opened for business only on December 28th,” complain GHADC accounts officials.
With December 30 a designated holiday across the state, the last working day of the year leans on December 31. Hope appears to be fading fast for the over 1500 employees of GHADC to welcome New Year with something on the table for their families.