Shillong, Aug 1: State Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader, Dr Mukul Sangma, led his party MDCs in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) to Raj Bhavan to meet Meghalaya Governor Chandrashekhar H Vijayashankar on the years-long pending salaries of council employees.
Dr Sangma, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, said that the MDCs articulated before the Governor the insensitivities of the state government towards the district councils and sought his intervention.
According to Dr Sangma, Meghalaya’s district councils have faced financial difficulties before but there has been nothing like what the GHADC is going through now where salaries have not been paid for the last 43 months.
GHADC employees are currently engaged in a protest – since July 7 – over this and Dr Sangma said that the TMC MDCs might join them in solidarity.
The government’s failure to resolve the matter “is a reflection of their insensitivity, lack of concern and dereliction of duty. Therefore it will be necessary for the people not to remain in silence, but to raise our voice and if the government does not take this problem into cognizance and fulfill their responsibility. It will be necessary for us to join the agitating employees of the GHADC,” Dr Sangma said.
The TMC also believes that the chaos in the council is deliberate, an attempt to create inaction and fiscal mismanagement to undermine the functioning of the GHADC and institute paralysis.
Meanwhile, the TMC MDCs also submitted a memorandum to Vijayashankar on the “abrupt” termination of the 14th session of the GHADC recently and requested him to call for a special session of the house.
“The procedurally irregular adjournment of the GHADC (sitting) has not only disrupted the democratic process but left critical issues unaddressed causing widespread anxiety and anger among the people of Garo Hills,” the MDCs said.
The opposition MDCs also stated that the selection of business items for discussion had been left solely to the discretion of the ruling party, thereby undermining and silencing opposition voices.
“The recent incident is a prima facie blatant attempt to silence dissent and conceal the glaring failures of the NPP-led executive committee on several challenging issues affecting the entire Garo Hills region,” the memo added.
Other matters raised by the TMC included concerns over the non-implementation of Clause 7.7 of the Agreed Text for Settlement (Tripartite Agreement) signed in 2014 between the central government, state government and two militant factions.
This clause mandates the constitution of the Meghalaya State Finance Commission to establish a proper institutional basis for fund allocation and the equitable sharing of tax proceeds between the state and the autonomous district councils.
However, even after more than a decade since the signing of the agreement, the state government has not acted on this critical financial reform. The opposition MDCs also urged the Governor to direct the government to clear the Garo Customary Law Bill.
