Shillong, May 15: A special committee headed by the chief secretary was formed by the state government for reforming and improving the overall administration and financial health of the three autonomous district councils (ADCs).
A meeting chaired by the Chief Minister Conrad Sangma in the presence of deputy chief minister in-charge district council affairs (DCA) Prestone Tynsong on Wednesday took the decision.
Representatives of Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) and Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) also attended the meeting.
Speaking to reporters, Sangma said the meeting has been convened to achieve three different objectives.
First is to look into the overall administration and different rules, to improve the financial health and to clear all pending bills passed by the three ADCs.
“A detailed discussion took place and we have formed a special committee, which will be headed by the chief secretary and the different district council officials will be members and whatever guidance and support that is required will be done to ensure that objective is met,” he said.
The committee will provide support and guidance to the district councils to ensure the different rules, financial or human resources or procurement policies are in place at different levels.
The chief minister said a special committee will also examine the aspect of bringing the much needed financial reformation in the three ADCs.
“A roadmap has been set and the committee will time and again examine this aspect and look into this issue on how to improve the overall financial health of the ADCs,” he said.
Sangma said, “We discussed the different financial situations faced by the ADCs including different manpower issues. For example, we saw the GHADC has close to 1500 employees and about 5 years back they had about 2500 employees and salaries exceeding to almost Rs 5 crore being paid on a monthly basis inspite of 1000 reduction taking place as in terms of rationalisation that took place in the GHADC. Similarly, the JHADC has approximately 1200 – 1400 of employees and they are also facing similar hardships because of large manpower and KHADC has less than 800 employees.”
The CM informed that the ADCs are also asked to engage experts to ensure overall revenue generation can be augmented and increased.
“At the same time the different assets that they have, the land and different buildings and how they could be monitored and maximised in terms of revenue generation for the ADCs and also to find other ways in which revenue can be raised,” he said.
On different issues relating to the 15th Finance Commission fundings, the CM said, “Certain aspects need to be worked on as there are more funds that are available from the centre and hence some more paperwork is required and once we do that we will be able to get more funds from the centre and those aspects were discussed.”
“We also discussed about the overall capacity building of the manpower at the ADCs, we felt that the overall expertise and manpower that is there existing in the ADCs if we can find ways to train the manpower and improve the overall efficiency it would go into the benefits of the ADCs,” he added.
The state government has also emphasized the need for three ADCs to document the different customary practices to preserve the rich culture and heritage of the three indigenous tribes of the state.
“One of the main objectives of the council is to preserve the culture and heritage of our state and hence I proposed to the different ADCs that different kinds of research and documentation need to be done and the state government would be happy to work with the different ADCs to help them in whatever way possible so that we are able to document and preserve the different cultural aspects and knowledge that are there in our customs,” he added.
