SHILLONG, Dec 2: With the state government giving an assurance that it would implement the Fifth Pay Commission with retrospective effect from 2017, the Shillong Municipal Employees’ Association (SMEA) on Thursday called off their pen-down strike.
SMEA president, Sylvester Pyngrope said Urban Affairs Minister, Sniawbhalang Dhar gave them the assurance during their meeting on Thursday. The minister also assured that the pending salaries for October and November would be release before Christmas while the arrears would be cleared by March next year.
“We will wait till Christmas to see if the assurances made by the minister are fulfilled. If the demands are not met then we will be left with no option but to agitate again,” Pyngrope said.
The SMEA president also claimed that the autonomy of the Shillong Municipal Board has been taken away since the government has not held municipal elections for almost 40 years now.
“We would have functioned as an autonomous body if we have the ward commissioners in place. We would have been receiving funding from the Centre and would not have had to depend on the state government,” Pyngrope said.
The SMEA president said that the state government should not shy away from its responsibilities since it has taken over the management of the SMB.
He also claimed that assets of the board, and even its office, have been leased out to private parties. “At present, we do not even have a permanent office. We have been force to shift our offices from one place to another as per the directive of the government,” he added.