Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma today blamed the former Congress-led executive committee for the financial mess in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC).
The Chief Minister informed the Assembly that in 2011 the staff strength in the GHADC was approximately 1,400 which went up by 50 percent to around 2,100 in 2013-15.
“The expenditure in salary went up from Rs 1.8 crore to Rs 3.8 crore because of the arbitrary decision of the Congress-led EC,” Sangma said.
The Chief Minister informed that when his National People’s Party (NPP) took over the executive committee, it decided to reform the working of the council.
Through the streamlining process it was found out that there were 700 ghost employees in the GHADC, he added.
Sangma also blamed the previous Congress government for the mess in the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd (MeECL). He said that the then government had agreed to pay Rs 840 crore as terminal benefits to the employees but that “not a single rupee was given. MeECL had to pay from its own pocket since 2010 to the tune of around Rs 600 crore.”
Had the Congress government cleared the amount as promised, the MeECL would have been in a better position now, he opined.
