TURA, March 3: With no end in sight to a solution to get their salaries for the past two and half years, despite continuing protest and strikes, the employees of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) have announced an indefinite hunger strike starting 10th of this month.
“We are left with no option but to embark on a hunger strike to demand our rights and dues because months of protest have fallen on the deaf ears of the government. We will undertake a fast from the 10th of March indefinitely,” announced Senora Johny Arengh, leader of the protesting Non-Gazetted Employees Association (NGEA) on Wednesday.
The protest has been escalating in recent days and weeks and the announcement of elections to 29 seats in the GHADC has only raised the protest bar further.
The council goes to the polls on April 9.
The strike has paralysed the working of the GHADC for more than a week and mobilisation of revenue has been hit hard.
The striking employees are demanding the intervention of Chief Minister Conrad Sangma in this imbroglio.
On Wednesday, dozens of men and women striking employees barricaded themselves outside the office premises of GHADC to prevent the entry of the GHADC Secretary, Rikse R Marak, and the Administrator, D Vijay Kumar. Both officials did not turn up at the Council.
“We are not going to allow them to function after what they have threatened us with,” angry staffers complained.
Last week, during a meeting between the leaders of the striking employees and the GHADC Administrator, D Vijay Kumar, the latter is accused of ridiculing the employees over their protest including an alleged threat of dismissal.
The alleged ‘highhanded’ behavior of D Vijay Kumar, currently the Commissioner of Garo Hills Division and Administrator of GHADC, has led to several student and social organisations from Garo Hills to demand action against him.
The Garo Students’ Union (GSU) and its allies like the FKJGP and AYWO have joined the side of the striking employees and dared the Commissioner of Divisions, D Vijay Kumar, to terminate any of the protestors.
In a public meeting outside the GHADC office this week, the GSU and its supporting organisations warned of a Garo Hills shutdown to take on the threat of termination allegedly lobbed by the Administrator to the protesting employees.