Bernard takes up GHADC, peace pact issues with CM

TURA, Sep 1: BJP leader and Tura MDC Bernard N Marak on Sunday urged Chief Minister Conrad Sangma to personally address the ongoing salary crisis in the GHADC, while also accusing previous executive committees of misusing funds meant for the council.
“I want to emphasise that the demands of the employees for the 5th Pay Commission are genuine, and I believe you are aware that the notification was issued by the then NPP CEM of GHADC in 2018 to approve and endorse the Fifth Meghalaya Pay Commission via no. F(PR)-49/2017/192 (copy enclosed). Through that notification, all departments were directed to prepare the pay and allowances of officers and staff with the new revision of pay and allowances as per the provisions of the Meghalaya Services (Revision of Pay) and other related rules, starting from the month of April 2018,” Marak stated in his letter to the Chief Minister.
Bernard noted that the official notification was not honored or followed by subsequent Executive Committees, which were also led by the NPP. He reminded that from 2018 until today, budgets were prepared and passed in accordance with the 5th Pay Commission Scale, but employees continued to receive payment under the 4th Pay Commission. He added that this discrepancy indicated a serious anomaly within the Executive Committee.
In the letter, the Tura MDC also raised the issue of the Peace Pact signed by the ANVC groups, the Centre, and the State Government in 2014. He pointed out that after the agreement was signed, Rs 100.71 crore was sanctioned as a special package, followed by many other packages in the years that followed under NPP rule in the GHADC. However, he claimed that this led to many anomalies, some of which are pending in court, while others are under inquiry.
“Although the funds were sanctioned through an agreement, the members of the ANVC groups were neither informed nor included in the monitoring committee by the State Government, despite it being decided in review meetings that signatories from ANVC-B were to be made members. Additionally, the funds were routed without the Finance Commission in place in the State, violating the agreement.
This has resulted in fund anomalies by the previous Executive Committees, who diverted approximately Rs 53 crore from Central Funds to pay the salaries of the employees, which were in fact never paid. Even the 40% of the amounts sanctioned for projects disappeared from the Council’s account without payment being made to the contractors,” he claimed, while seeking a high-level inquiry into the matter.
Bernard, while terming the situation as a betrayal of the Garo people in general, urged Conrad to take the ANVC groups’ agreement signed in 2014 seriously and convene a meeting to review the implementation of the agreed terms.