Shillong, Sept 30: The Meghalaya government has approved a financial package to support the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) in clearing salary arrears and ensuring timely payment of salaries to its employees.
After chairing a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma announced that the state government will release advance to cover 12 months of backlog and salary payments from November 1.
The decision was taken based on the recommendations of the committee under the district council affairs department after the sub-committee engaging with the GHADC had submitted its report recently.
“After detailed discussion with the sub-committee and detailed discussion with the EC of the GHADC and understanding their needs and concerns, the state government and the cabinet today has decided to release in advance the share of council and their royalty and with this they will be able to clear certain amount of backlog approximately 12 months and will be able to pay salaries on time and this advance again the share of the council is what has been agreed by the cabinet today,” Sangma told reporters.
“Approximately, about Rs 24-25 crore which we have as their own share of taxes which is with the state government. That is their due which we will be releasing to them. Additional advance will be required to pay the 12 months backlog and also to pay the salary on November 1,” he said while adding that the state government will release the funds to the GHADC’s ESCROW account to ensure the money is used for salary purposes.
He further clarified, “As I said this is not any kind of bailout package or any kind of intervention, there has been nothing decided today. The only thing decided is that we are releasing the advance of the royalty and the shares that they have which is their dues and from the future there are some advances that they require so we will be releasing that to enable them to clear the due to the employees.”
The chief minister also informed that the GHADC has agreed to accept the appointment of an IAS officer as Principal Secretary, with a proposal to make the Deputy Commissioner the ex-officio Principal Secretary.
A majority of GHADC’s 1200-1300 employees have signed documents accepting the financial package, with around 800 employees submitting written consent.
“They (GHADC) have accepted it and in fact we have got a written signature campaign of about close to 800 employees have signed and sent documents to the subcommittee saying that they are accepting this. Out of 1200-1300 employees, the majority of them have written and sent that to us. Of course, the EC will further decide on how the salaries will be paid but as I said for us we will be releasing their shares in advance,” he said.
Further, the chief minister informed that the state government has been supporting the GHADC by releasing funds and giving additional funds during the last three years.
“It is not that we are reacting only now even in the past funds have been released to the GHADC to enable them to pay salaries. In fact in the last four and a half years about 42 months salaries have been paid and a large amount of that has come out because again we have released some additional amount in terms of advance to them. Therefore, we are intervening to support them financially,” he added.
