By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, May 16: The KHADC has welcomed the suggestion of Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma that there should be engagement between the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs), Law department, and District Councils Affairs department on the Bills of the Council, starting from the drafting stage.
Speaking to reporters, KHADC Deputy Chief Executive Member (CEM) Pynshngain N Syiem said the Chief Minister has made an important suggestion since the Bills prepared by the Council need to be rectified repeatedly after being passed if they can have a discussion during the drafting stage.
“At present, the DCA would return the Bills passed by the Council multiple times for rectification. We feel this exercise consumes a lot of time and defeats the purpose since the Council would like to see the bills become an Act after receiving the assent from the Governor,” Syiem said.
He said that if there are deliberations during the drafting stage, they will be able to detect the deficiencies before the Bills are tabled and passed in the House.
“It will also address the current problem where many of the Council’s bills are pending with the DCA department,” the KHADC Deputy CEM said.
Meanwhile, Syiem said that four Bills of the Council are currently being examined by the Governor.
He said they hope the government will give its assent to these four Bills.
Further, the KHADC Deputy CEM said that the Chief Minister was very concerned about the current affairs of the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs), especially the GHADC and JHADC, since their staff has not received salaries for several months.
Syiem informed that the Government would explore the possibilities of rationalizing the employees of the council by utilizing them in different major projects of the government.
According to him, this proposal is specifically meant for the JHADC and GHADC, which are overstaffed.
“We have agreed to come up with the latest service rules that will streamline and regulate the appointment of its employees to prevent unnecessary appointments. This is much needed, especially in the councils currently facing the problem of being overstaffed,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said that the CM also suggested the need to monetise the Council’s assets to help generate revenue to pay the salaries of its staff.
According to him, the KHADC has several assets, like the Khasi Heritage Village at Mawphlang and the Traditional Medicine Institute at Lum Sohpetbneng.
Earlier on Wednesday, the state government had asked the autonomous district councils (ADCs) to implement a series of reforms so they could streamline their functioning and transform them into revenue-surplus institutions.
The government held a meeting with the ADCs on Wednesday to discuss the way forward.
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said all three ADCs will implement human resources, service rules and financial policies at the earliest for which a special committee has been constituted.
The committee will examine why several Bills of the ADCs have been pending for many years at different levels.
During the meeting, issues, including financial reforms and manpower facing the ADCs, were also discussed at length.
Sangma highlighted that the appointment of employees without sanction is one of the major reasons why the ADCs are facing financial difficulties.
He pointed out that the Garo Hills The Autonomous District Council had around 2,500 employees five years ago, but the number has now been reduced to 1,500.
He said the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council also has around 1,200 to 1,400 employees, whereas the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council has fewer than 800 employees.
The CM said no new appointments have been made in the last five to six years.