Shillong, Aug 29: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma laid down reformative measures to address the ongoing financial crisis in the autonomous district councils.
Sangma said that the reformative measures would include formulating service rules for the councils, procurement policy, rationalisation and re appropriation of employees, etc to bring in financial stability.
The state government this week pledged to take on the responsibility of paying the salaries of the three Autonomous District Councils (ADCs), which was rejected by the opposition MDCs and employees of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC). The employees owed 44 months’ worth of pay and rejected the proposal stating it does not solve the immediate problem.
The Chief Minister on Friday met with Nokma representatives from different parts of Garo Hills led by Garo Students Union President Tengsak Momin to highlight the reformative measures and said the pay offer was to bail-out its employees.
He said that the GHADC is reeling under serious financial instability, which if not addressed, will lead to larger challenges for the council.
“Revenue collections of GHADC this year is just about 25 crores whereas salary expenditure only for the employees is about 70 crores creating a significant gap between income generation and expenditure and under these conditions the state government has stepped in to intervene only to bring financial reforms and stability in GHADC,” he said.
He reiterated that the state government has no power or jurisdiction over the functioning and working of GHADC. “Our offer to take over the salaries of the GHADC employees from November 1, 2025 is just a bail-out package for the welfare of the employees and a part of the financial reforms to bring in stability in the council,” he said.
