By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Feb 21: The state government emphasised on Wednesday that autonomous district councils (ADC) are accountable for paying their employees’ salaries and that it is unjust to hold the government accountable for the delay in processing the outstanding salaries.
In his response to the Governor’s address, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma discussed the issue of unpaid dues of the district council employees, saying, “Since these organisations are autonomous in nature, the elected body bears full responsibility for both the administration and the salary component. It would be unfair to bind it to the state government and assign it the salary responsibility.” The government must, he said, “look at ways and means to support and help ADCs whenever possible, since they are traditional institutions that we need and they are within our state.”
He disclosed that the GHADC employs 1,577 people, and that there is a monthly discrepancy of approximately Rs 3–4 crore between the council’s income and its salary burden.
He claimed that since the JHADC is also dealing with this issue, a multifaceted strategy and several tough choices must be made by the district councils in order to reduce expenses and strengthen their administrative framework.