‘Mismanagement’ one of the reasons behind financial crisis in the ADCs

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaNovember 13, 2019

SHILLONG: District Council Affairs Minister James K Sangma said mismanagement is one of the reasons for the acute financial crisis faced by the autonomous district councils (ADCs) in the state.

“This is not something which has taken place overnight but it is an accumulation of mismanagement may be over so many years whereby now we found that the ADCs are really struggling due to revenue and expenditure gap,” Sangma told reporters here on Wednesday.

This also came in the wake of a protest organized by the opposition Congress demanding the immediate release of the pending two-year salaries to the employees of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC).

Similarly, over 1,800 employees including members of the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) are also without salary for the past six months. The JHADC however had alleged the state government’s failure to release the Council’s share on royalty collected from minor and major minerals.

Asked, the minister however said that whatever is due is something which would not really solve the financial problems of the ADCs. He also added that a process has to be followed otherwise the government cannot just go and release whatever dues that are there.

“They are really facing acute financial crisis no doubt. However we are trying to work together with the ADCs and see how best we can solve this and the process is already on,” Sangma said.

In the case of the GHADC, he however said these problems have existed for a very long time and now it has come to a point that the situation is very serious while assuring that the government is trying to figure out on how to resolve this issue.

According to him, the number of staff has also brought huge liability to the district councils.