Employees of the Jagiroad Development Authority (JDA) have not received their monthly salaries for 50 consecutive months, after the Assam government stopped releasing funds to all development authorities in 2016 — leaving staff in severe financial hardship with no resolution in sight.
The JDA was constituted by the Government of Assam under the Assam Town and Country Planning Act, 1959, for the implementation of the master plan and zoning regulations prepared by the Town and Country Planning Department in 1989. Until 2016, the government regularly released a fund for staff salaries and necessary expenditures. The abrupt stoppage of funds that year has since left employees struggling to sustain themselves.
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The All Assam Development Authority Employees Joint Council (AADAEJC) has submitted several memoranda to the concerned authorities over the years, but employees said no concrete steps have been taken in response.
In a particularly troubling development, some employees of development authorities across Assam have retired without ever receiving their pending monthly salaries.
AADAEJC President Pradip Rabi Das and Secretary Pabitra Adhikary have appealed to the government to provincialize the services of development authority employees, which would entitle them to regular salaries on par with other state government employees.
They expressed deep frustration over what they described as the government's continued apathy toward the plight of workers who have served the state's urban planning infrastructure for decades.