SHILLONG/TURA, May 28: MDA Spokesperson and senior NPP leader, James Sangma, has called for an early solution to the ongoing crisis in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC).
His statement comes in the wake of a ruckus that broke out on the Council premises on Thursday.
Sangma, on Friday, said that the situation has taken an unfortunate turn while, at the same time, maintaining that the new Executive Committee is trying its best to resolve the issue of non-payment of salaries to the Council employees.
“Officers attending office and trying to work is a beginning of the efforts to resolve the problem at GHADC and trying to stop their entry (into the Council) and disrupt the environment do not serve any purpose,” James said.
Maintaining that such instances will only go against the intention of the new EC who are diligently trying to find a solution to the issue, James asked the agitating employees to stop “this kind of behaviour” and cooperate, which, according to him, is the only way to find a solution to this problem.
GHADC CEM, Benedic Marak, is in constant touch with the government in attempts to find a solution to salary crisis.
Stating that he empathises with the agitating employees, James, however, steered clear of commenting on a query if he sees the spate of agitations as politically motivated.
The employees have genuine problems like running households and have families to feed, he maintained, adding that everyone must play their part and try to find a solution rather than resorting to disruptive agitations.
FIR against NGEA
GHADC authorities have filed a complaint against several leaders of the NGEA over a chaos that took place on the Council premises on Thursday.
The FIR, filed on the same day on complaint registered by the Principal Secretary to the EC, HA Sangma, with the Tura Police Station, named several NGEA leaders including secretary Brithen M Sangma, president Senora Johny Arengh, joint secretary Flaming B Marak, adviser Balseng M Sangma and members Chris Jenny Ch Marak, Tengsmey Sangma, Sengmilla Ch Momin and Henyvirth Marak.
“The new EC is taking the issue of NGEA very seriously and has time and again tried to negotiate with the agitating employees even coming up with the temporary solution of providing a package of five months’ salaries and requesting them to resume work to which many of them have agreed,” the FIR said.
The FIR added that in order to complete the process necessary for the release of the said salaries, employees connected with the Treasury have been coming to work to prepare pay bills of the employees as directed by the EC.
However, as the EC members and officers were coming out of the premises, protesting NGEA members illegally obstructed and stopped vehicles and without authority attempted to search them resulting in the ensuing chaos.
According to the complaint, protesters also pelted stones at vehicles and particularly targeted one Accounts officer and shouted threats against him, prompting him to speed away in his vehicle to save himself from the unruly mob.
The complaint also mentioned that the NGEA had on May 26 allowed a politically-affiliated woman, who is not part of the association, to deliver a flaring speech in support of their agitation which, it said, goes against their own constitution to be non-political.
Meanwhile, pointing out that the agitation of the NGEA was being done at a time when the entire district was under total curfew in view of the pandemic, the complaint maintained that the same amounts to violation of the Meghalaya Epidemic Diseases COVID-19 Regulations, 2020.
