Salary crisis in GHADC exposes rift within Meghalaya BJP

CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Meghalaya is displaying a clear internal divergence, with its leaders adopting sharply contrasting tones on the burning issue of 43 months of unpaid salaries to employees of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC). What has emerged is not just a crisis of governance, but a political split in narrative—within the same party.

While BJP State vice president and GHADC Member from Tura, Bernard N. Marak, has launched an open political assault on the ruling National People’s Party (NPP)-led Executive Committee, calling for its ouster and urging the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) to hand over control of the Council to the BJP, senior party legislator and Cabinet Minister AL Hek has refrained from endorsing such a move—taking a non-confrontational stand and steering clear of direct criticism.

Marak, in a strongly-worded letter to Assam Chief Minister and NEDA Chairman Himanta Biswa Sarma, accused the NPP of “systemic failure,” financial mismanagement, and betrayal of the 2014 Garo Accord. “The result has been a financial collapse, with GHADC employees left unpaid for 43 months and the Council stripped of its core responsibilities,” he wrote, calling on NEDA to facilitate a BJP-led takeover of GHADC.

He asserted, “The people of Garo Hills have placed their trust in BJP by voting for it for good governance, and it is only fitting that this trust be honoured through responsible leadership and meaningful reform.”

However, Hek, when confronted with the same issue, chose to tread cautiously, stating, “Those who are employer must pay salary to their employees,” but stopped short of directly backing Marak’s call for regime change. On the BJP escalating the matter to constitutional authorities, Hek commented, “It is good that they (BJP) has brought it to the notice of the Governor, they (BJP) has brought it to the knowledge of the Prime Minister, they (BJP) has brought it to the knowledge of the other state Chief Minister… to bring it to the knowledge of the higher authority—it’s good, it’s not a wrong thing.”

Even when pressed on whether the NPP-led Executive Committee should be removed, Hek deflected: “It is the duty and the responsibility of the employer who were employing them should pay the salaries.”

Highlighting the moral and institutional obligation of all employers, Hek added, “GHADC: People are working, they are employees… they have been working for so many years, many months, so why they have not been paid? It is our duty as a government to see that the salary should be given to those who are already working.”

On the state government’s responsibility, Hek further said, “All these years how they were paying the salary—through their own revenue or are being paid by the state government—that I don’t know. First we have to find the fact.”

Significantly, Hek also refrained from alleging inaction, saying, “I cannot say the state government is not doing anything to solve the problem. Maybe the government is doing their own. We have the Chief Minister, we have Deputy Chief Minister in-charge of District Council Affairs—they are doing their duties.”

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