Shillong, Aug 10: Although it ostensibly wants to avoid making the subject political, the Garo Hills zone of the Federation of Khasi, Jaintia and Garo People (FKJGP) today compared Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma with the Biblical bad guy Pontius Pilate in the former’s handling of the ongoing financial difficulties in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC).
The GHADC has been unable to pay its employees their salaries, with pending dues now amounting to nearly four years’ worth. While the FKJGP noted that accumulating arrears was not unheard of for the GHADC, 43 months of unpaid wages was an unheard of situation.
“It is not our contention to blame any particular Executive Committee (EC) for this failure, however, it is evident that consecutive ECs has collectively failed to address the issue properly and we have not seen any evidence insinuating that the political class of Garo Hills in particular and Meghalaya in general is interested in rectifying the matter which requires contemplation on the root causes that are contributing to the crisis,” the pressure group said.
Both the state government and the GHADC are led by the National People’s Party (NPP) and the party supremo is Sangma.
When asked about what the state government could do to alleviate the situation, Sangma recently said that the government’s role is limited in the functioning of the district councils, which, as their name makes clear, are autonomous.
This answer has not gone down well with the FKJGP, which referred to Sangma washing his hands of the issue, like a “certain historical Roman administrator”. Though unnamed in the pressure group, Pilate famously washed his hands in public to try and relieve himself of any guilt regarding Jesus Christ’s death.
The FKJGP described Sangma’s words as a “big disappointment to the people of Garo Hills” and a a “shock” as the CM has, the release said, tried to absolve himself “from the duty of the rectifying the ill policies and unforthcoming practices of the GHADC which we feel are the root causes for the failures of the consecutive ECs of the GHADC in resolving the crisis of clearing all pending salaries to its employees.”
The pressure group then added that it does not believe that the GHADC problems should be used for political one-upmanship but rather as an opportunity to rectify failed policies and mechanisms adopted by ECs past and present and a chance to introduce transparency and accountability in the functioning and conduct of the council.
