TURA, Sept 18: Hundreds of employees of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council who have been demanding the clearance of 31 months pending dues or face an indefinite strike have been told that the council does not have funds to pay such a huge backlog.

Instead, the employees will be getting two months dues, within this week.

The employees of the council under the banner of the Non-Gazetted Employees Association had given a deadline of 15 September to either pay up or face a long spell of agitation. They have sought nothing short of five months dues to be paid as the first initial package.

With the deadline having crossed last Friday, the employees called for a meeting on Monday to decide the steps they intended to take over the failure of the authorities to fulfill their demands.

The leaders of the employees association met with the Chief Executive Member of the GHADC Albinush Marak who later addressed the staff in a meeting in the premises of the council.

“Right now, the district council does not have that kind of money to even clear 5 months of pending salaries. We don’t know when funds will be given to us to clear the backlog which in itself is a massive 31 months. I would be lying to you if I said we will pay 5 months when we cannot,” said CEM Albinush Marak.

But he assured the staff that whenever funds are brought in to the district council, priority would be the pending salaries.

He said that the district council currently has generated revenue to clear only two months of salaries, which he added, would be disbursed within this week itself.

“Cheques will be disbursed within the next few days for two months of pending dues,” said Albinush Marak.

The CEM also pointed out that minus the backlog left behind by previous Executive Committees of the district council, the NPP led EC has so far paid 30 months of employees dues.

“From the time our EC took over we have already paid 30 months salaries under our governance. But, the previous backlog of 31 months has been a serious challenge for us to clear,” lamented the CEM as he appealed to the employees to work in tandem with the EC to find ways to mitigate this challenge of backlog.

It remains to be seen if the angry employees will buy into his story, or not.

Also Read: Tura engineer accused of taking Rs. 30,000 bribe to pass bill, contractor files case in HC

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