TURA, May 10: There seems to be no end to the continuing story of deadlock over talks to end protests by agitating employees of the GHADC as another round of high-level discussions between the staff and the new Executive Committee over the issue of salary disbursement crashed on Monday afternoon in Tura.
The new EC headed by NPP legislator and MDC Benedic R Marak as Chief Executive Member had invited the employees under the under the umbrella of Non-Gazetted Employees Association (NGEA) for talks in his office chamber, in presence of his executive members and senior Council officials, but it failed to make any headway as the protesting staff refused to budge from their previous demand of disbursement of one entire year of pending salaries under a revised scale.
“We have only just taken charge and we need to first function to stir the Council from the current situation. For this to happen you need to withdraw your strike and return to duty otherwise no progress can be made on the financial front or any other matter affecting the district council,” appealed Benedic, addressing the NGEA leaders in his office chamber during Monday’s talks.
He pointed out that despite acute financial crisis in both the state and Council, particularly during the ongoing COVID pandemic and lockdown, efforts have been successfully made with the help of the state government for which five months of pending salaries are to be released as soon as the Council began functioning.
“With great difficulty we managed to get five months’ dues under the old scale. Let us first work with this and see where we can go further. The Council treasury is empty because there has been no financial transaction all this while due to the closure. Currently, there is only around Rs 96 lakh in the treasury,” revealed the CEM in the meeting.
However, the NGEA leaders have rejected the proposal on the grounds that it falls short of their demand for one year clearance. The striking employees want 12 months’ pending salaries paid under the revised scale.
In comparison to the old scale amounting to Rs 4 crore, the revised scale will cost the GHADC approximately Rs 6 crore each month for salary disbursement to all its workers. The pending dues total over 36 months.
“We are not asking for anything beyond what is rightfully ours. We want to be paid for our work and we demand 12 months of dues cleared in revised scale and only then shall we return to duty,” reiterated the NGEA leaders after consultation with their members outside the Council premises.
At one point of the discussion, the NGEA leaders had also raised the issue of payment of the impending five months’ salary under a revised scale which was turned down by the CEM on the grounds that the amount available was insufficient.
Some of the NGEA members also raised the issue of clearing salaries from central grants allocation which was clarified by new Deputy CEM, Nikman Ch Marak, who told them that central guidelines are very strict and funds meant for development projects cannot be diverted for salary disbursement.
Another suggestion put forward by NGEA leaders, asking the GHADC to take a bank loan to clear their pending dues for the last three years, was turned down as “highly unfeasible” given the poor financial position of the GHADC which would turn banks and other financial institutions away.
New Chairman of GHADC, Rakesh A Sangma, also attended the meeting and asked the striking employees to first give an opportunity for the new EC to function.
“Allow the EC to function. They have assured five months’ salary disbursement and sought a few months time to address the remaining dues. You should give them that benefit. If you are unhappy after that then no one can stop you from returning to any agitation, but they must be given an opportunity to prove themselves,” urged Rakesh, while speaking to the NGEA leaders.
Despite several rounds of talks for most part of the afternoon it ended without making any headway.
