JHADC threatens to move Court over govt’s failure to release Rs 94 Cr royalty share

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMay 13, 2020

Cash-strapped Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) has threatened to knock on the Court’s door if the state government fails to release the pending royalty share on minor and major minerals amounting to over Rs 94.40 crore.

This was expressed by the JHADC chief Thombor Shiwat and his deputy Lasky Rymbai after meeting the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, who is also holding charge of Finance and Mining & Geology, to seek his immediate intervention into the matter here on Wednesday.

The demand also came after the JHADC has failed to release salary to its members and staffs for seven months due to the delay of the government in releasing the royalty share, which was pending from 2008.

Earlier, the staffs were also forced to stage protest against this failure to release their salary especially in view of the present crisis arising out of the national lockdown to combat COVID-19 pandemic.

It may be mentioned here that the JHADC would require Rs 42 crore to clear the seven-month pending salary to over 1600 staffs including 30 members.

Shiwat said that this is the second time that the delegation had met the CM on his invitation to discuss on the demand put forth by the Council.

He said on the direction of the CM during the first meeting, the JHADC and DMR had completed the process of working out the total pending royalty share to be released to the Council.

He however informed that CM during today’s meeting told the delegation that he has decided to call a meeting with the officials of the finance, mining & geology and DMR to take a call on the amount to be released by the government to the JHADC.

“We have demanded from the CM to consider releasing the pending amount (on installment basis) of not less than Rs 7 crore every month if the government is still taking time to decide on the matter. It should not be misunderstood that we are asking for advance payment but the fact we are demanding the government to release what is due to us. The CM however responded that if he agrees to our request, the government will also have to release for GHADC as well,” the CEM said.

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According to him, releasing of the pending royalty share would to a great extent help the district council to clear the pending salary of its staffs.

Hinting that the JHADC may take legal recourse, Shiwat said, “We have decided that we will continue to pressurize the government on the matter. On failing, the JHADC may have no other option but to seek the intervention of the Court but we are yet to take a final call on this as we want this matter to be resolved amicably since we are from the same government.”

Asked, the CEM said that the total amount of royalty share pending to be released to the JHADC from 2008 to 2019 is up to Rs 94.40 crore.

Of this, pending royalty share for major minerals is Rs 83.97 crore and minor minerals is Rs 10.43 crore.

“The reason for this is because in the previous years, the government was paying lum sum amount against the actual royalty share on minor and major minerals which the district councils are entitled to get,” he said.

Shiwat further informed that the majority of revenue collection was made from Jaintia Hills during the year 2015-16 and 2016-17. “However, the government has distributed this revenue collected from Jaintia Hills to all the three ADCs, which was never done before. When we enquired from DMR, they told us that this was done based on the verbal order of the then CM, Mukul Sangma,” he alleged.

Meanwhile, the CEM has lauded the staffs of the district council for their cooperation with the request of the executive committee. “They have been very patience with us but for how long we cannot say,” he said. According to him, the members of the council are facing huge financial constrain to help the people in their respective constituencies in view of the COVID-19 crisis.