Meghalaya: Marak slams government for not paying 42-month salary to GHADC employees

Correspondent

Shillong: Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee Working President Deborah C. Marak has slammed the ruling dispensation for allowing employees of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) to go without salaries for a staggering 42 months. Lashing out at what she termed an unforgivable administrative failure, Marak said the silence of the government amid such prolonged suffering is a glaring indictment of its priorities.

“Almost forgot—four years, District Council could not pay salary to their staffs. They are starving for almost four years without salaries. Staffs come to street, their families are suffering, still Government is silent,” she declared, holding the ruling Garo Hills Democratic Coalition (GHDC) and its Chief Executive Member (CEM) morally accountable for the crisis.

Marak stated that despite being in the Opposition, the Congress continues to raise its voice for justice. “We are in the opposition, the action we cannot take, but we request the CEM GHADC to do justice to the staffs,” she added.

Positioning the Congress party as a grassroots-oriented alternative, Marak drew a sharp contrast with what she described as a governance model driven by “money and muscle power.”

“We are organizing at the grassroots level as usual. You know Congress party is an organization-based party. We are organizing each and every Block Congress Committee and also we are going down to polling stations and the village level. Whoever wants to contest, they must go to the people and feel the pulse. They should talk to the people and they must organise at the grassroots level,” she said, stressing the party’s on-ground mobilisation efforts.

When asked whether the “Congress wave” still held strength in Garo Hills despite the party’s absence of MLAs or MDCs, Marak responded confidently: “Looks like. How many voters will go back to their respective parties? I hope under the leadership of our MP Saleng A. Sangma—because he has already led the wave, he has shown the way and people, they love him and voted to power. At least we have one MP in Garo Hills. You all know we don’t have MLAs or MDCs, but still people voted for Congress in MP election. This is power of people. You cannot say Congress doesn’t have leader.”

Marak’s statements come at a time of visible unrest in the region, with unpaid salaries, economic hardship, and political disillusionment becoming pressing issues. Her remarks send a clear message that the Congress, though currently in the Opposition, is preparing for a fightback, buoyed by public support and voter trust. With “42 months of unpaid salaries” becoming both a statistic and a symbol of governance failure, the political future of the region is entering a phase where accountability may finally overpower apathy.

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