Tura, May 28: Seeking the intervention of Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, the Non – Gazetted Employees Association (NGEA) of Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) on Friday urged him to take the initiative to bring to an end the months long deadlock which has impacted both the council and the employees.
“We want to urge upon Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma to intervene and solve our problem. The NPP is ruling the State as well as GHADC and it is their responsibility to find an amicable solution,” said Brithen M. Sangma, Secretary of NGEA in an exclusive interview to Hub News, while making an appeal “Chief Minister Sir please look into our demands”.
The NGEA has reiterated that they will not accept the five months salary in the old pay scale and Brithen Sangma alleged that the Chief Executive Member (CEM) Benedic Marak had previously assured to resolve their issue, but, during their meeting failed to accept their demands.
“He (CEM) had called us to negotiate the matter and had assured us to resolve our demands. However, despite three rounds of meeting, the CEM failed to give us any assurance. We stand committed to our demand for a revised 5th pay scale because we are not asking for anything extra other than what is due to us,” he added.
Recalling that the outgoing EC led by NPP had assured that employees of the council will be given revised 5th pay scale, he asked, “Why is the present EC refusing to provide us revised pay scale, which was decided by the outgoing EC? We also have to run our families with what we earn from our work.”
He said that the cease work will continue unless the council considers to pay at least one year of revised pay scale to the staff. “We are prepared to call off our strike if the council considers to pay us revised pay scale for one year. We are not even asking for the immediate clearance of the remaining two years,” he assured.
The council is under lock and key for the past three months, as the council could not clear salaries for the past 34 months. It is to be noted that in the last 2 years, the salaries were cleared on several occasions.
