TURA, Jan 7: In a move aimed at dispelling doubts and providing more clarity on the financial position and functioning of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC), which has recently been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons, an interaction among various stakeholders of the region was organised by the Council Secretary at Tura Circuit House on Thursday.
The interaction comes as several hundred employees of the 69-year-old self-governing autonomous body remain in protest against non-payment of their salaries for the past 28 months.
Ahead of Christmas, monthly salaries pending for July and August, 2018, were said to be released but last-minute hitches in the paperwork resulted in almost the entire staff failing to get paid, until this week.
The meeting called by the state government-appointed Secretary to the GHADC, Rikse R Marak, had in attendance members of several pressure groups like the GSU, FKJGP, AYWO, ADE, Garoland State Movement Committee, and leaders of political parties like the Congress, NPP and BJP.
The striking Non-Gazetted Employees Association (NGEA) did not participate in the meeting called by the Council secretary.
Those who attended threw several questions as to the reasons for the “decay” in the financial position and the steps needed to lift it.
“It is important to clarify to the general public about the current situation so as to familiarise every stakeholder and dispel doubts because there has been a lot of misinformation leading to suspicion about the financial status of the GHADC,” announced Rikse Marak, while addressing the gathering.
She said a lot has gone wrong in the past few years which brought the Council to a sorry state of affairs. The frequent recruitment of staff by successive elected members into the Council coupled with the failure to generate revenue were found to be the prime obstacles for the financial improvement of the district council.
Rikse Marak told the gathering that although the number of employees in the GHADC, which at one point of time crossed the 2,000-mark, has now been cut down to just 1,600, yet the salary bill remains staggeringly high as revenue generation has failed to match up.
“Every month an amount of Rs 3.95 to Rs 4 crore is required for staff salary. But our revenue generation is only 1.7 to 1.8 crore,” revealed the secretary.
It was exposed that although the GHADC has as many as 17 departments under it, a majority had failed to generate any revenue. Some departments like that of the Agriculture and Transport have turned out to be white elephants.
She also clarified that the much-touted Single Window System of revenue collection that was set up in the GHADC to curb revenue loss has had limited success. “Only around 30 to 40 per cent success has been seen following the implementation of the single window system. Pilferage is still there,” said the Council secretary.
Briefing the political leaders and pressure groups, she mentioned the various steps currently being taken to raise revenue and curtail expenditure even as the invited guests also gave their suggestions.