SHILLONG:
The Coordination Committee of Registered MeECL Employees Associations and Unions (CCORMAU), on June 14, apprised the Power Minister on the pending salary issue of employees, which has left them in grave situation.
“The salary for the month of May is still pending, and we have already given a notice to the management that the salaries must be paid by the 10th of every month. However, as the same could not be disbursed, we were supposed to hold a protest on the next working day, but since the CMD had called for a meeting today, we decided not to go ahead with the protest. But to our disappointment the meeting was cancelled by the CMD,” CCORMAU vice president Arju Dkhar said.
Dkhar said that the union interacted with the power minister AT Mondal on the matter, who on his part assured to look into the issues raised by the union.
“The Power minister informed us that the matter will be taken up with the chief minister next week, and accordingly we will move forward,” he said.
Asked on how the government is planning to clear the terminal benefits of the employees, Dkhar said that a detailed plan was discussed with the power minister, and the union hopes that the plan is put into action.
Dkhar also informed that discussion pertaining to the expenditure on power purchase by the power department amounting to Rs 30 crore on daily basis was also discussed.
“Now, when you buy power at higher rates say at Rs 8, when the tariffs are Rs 4-5, can’t the government subsidise on each and every category of consumers, is it fair to keep keep the domestic tariffs high, when domestic consumers don’t consume that much pf power?,” Dkhar questioned.