Lapang: Hopeful

Shillong, Nov. 19: The Meghalaya government will write to the Union finance ministry to release Rs 545 crore to distribute as arrears to state government employees following recommendations of the Fourth Pay Commission.

The employees hope to get the arrears by December.

However, the Centre is yet to take a decision onthe plea.

A state delegation, led by chief minister D.D. Lapang, met Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi on Tuesday and apprised him of the need to release Rs 545 crore to the state government as special central assistance.

Lapang said the Centre was willing to give the amount at the earliest.

Principal secretary (finance) B.K. Dev Verma, who was also part of the delegation, said today that the Centre had asked the state finance department to write a formal letter to the Union finance ministry, requesting them to release the amount.

“We are not sure when we will receive the amount,” Dev Verma said.

He added that central assistance was usually released at end of the financial year, which would mean that the funds would be obtained in the early part of next year.

The Meghalaya government in August had approved a 32 per cent pay hike for all state government employees with retrospective effect from January 1, 2007 according to the recommendations of the Fourth Pay Commission.

The state cabinet also approved the withdrawal of the new salaries from October.

The financial burden for the new salary will come to nearly Rs 330 crore annually for the state, as there are 70,000 government employees.

The arrears since 2007 will come to around Rs 660 crore, which will be cleared in a phased manner; only 40 per cent will be cleared this year.

With the Christmas season approaching, a majority of the employees want the state government to release the pending arrears next month itself.

The confusion arose after the Meghalaya treasury mistook the letter of state finance department regarding the release of arrears.

“We had only said in the letter that arrears should be released in this financial year and did not mention specifically when to release them,” Dev Verma said.

He hoped that the Centre would release the required amount at the earliest.