COVID-19 likely to deepen salary crisis in GHADC

TURA: With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic crisis in the state, agony of the employees of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) who are yet to be paid their pending dues for over 24 months, is likely to get compounded  as there is no certainty about when they will get their next payment.

Although a contempt notice was filed in the High Court against the GHADC authorities by the employees under the banner of the Non-Gazetted Employees’ Association on Tuesday, the current crisis in the state is likely to hamper court proceedings leading to delay in addressing their issues.

The Non Gazetted Employees’ Association (NGEA) which has been at the forefront demanding the release of pending salaries and other dues has run out of options as repeated demands including submission of successive memorandums failed to evoke a positive response from GHADC authorities.

“From April 2018, the revised pay and allowances are due to be granted to the GHADC employees like other government employees. But there has been no official intimation from the authorities in this regard whatsoever. We have been coping with the financial crisis in the Council and somehow maintaining our families but the authorities have turned a blind eye to our plight,” the NGEA lamented in a statement.

According to the NGEA, an amount of Rs 24 crores was received by the GHADC in March 2020 out of which, only one month’s salary for March 2018 was released to the employees. Reacting to the supply of essential commodities to the employees recently in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, the association said that the money could have been used to pay a portion of their salaries and allowances.

Sources from within the council blame the apathy of the authorities for allowing the employees’ salary crisis to worsen. They claim that the council at certain points of time had enough funds to release some portions of their salaries but that the authorities were not resolute enough to do so.

With nowhere else to turn to, the employees are hoping against hope that the state government intervenes and do something to address their plight. However, with the current situation in the state, that too may take time and uncertainty is looming large when or whether they will even receive the payments due to them.