Team Herald
VASCO: The Goa Municipal Employees Association (GMEA) has given the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) chief officer until Tuesday to pay the staff’s salaries, failing which the workers union will go on strike the same day itself.
Last week, Herald reported about a possible delay in the disbursement of salaries and bonuses to Mormugao municipal employees, that too ahead of Diwali. It was also reported that Mormugao Municipal Council requires around Rs 80 lakh to pay the salaries of over 300 employees, including permanent staff and daily wage workers, per month. However, the government has not yet reimbursed the salary in the form of grants to the Mormugao Municipal Council.
Today, over Rs 4 crore in the form of salary reimbursement grants and octroi of over Rs 1.75 crore is pending.
Therefore, this month, the MMC accounts department will use the interest from the Golden Jubilee funds, which have remained as fixed deposits.According to GMEA president Keshav Prabhu, the last Chief Officer Melvyn Vaz was suspended and the new Chief Officer LSR Pereira refrained from signing any documents or cheques. He said, “On one side, there is a suspended officer, and on the other hand, there is a new officer who comes to the office but has no power to sign any cheques as the same requires approval from the Director of Municipal Administration (DMA). We requested the DMA to sort out the issue so that the salary can be given to the workers on time to prepare for Diwali. We have given them time until Monday, but still we will wait until Tuesday morning. If the issue is not resolved by then, we will go ahead with the strike and paralyse all activities at the MMC.”
