Contract staffers at UNESCO heritage sites, monuments in Assam not paid salaries since Nov 2024

Sivasagar (Assam): The contractual employees, engaged by the Directorate of Archaeology to look after 167 monuments across Assam, including the UNESCO World Heritage site of Ahom era 'Moidams', on Thursday claimed that they have not received their salaries for at least six months.

The authorities concerned admitted that there are certain issues regarding the payment of salaries, and said the government is in the process of resolving the matter soon.

Around 180 employees of two private contractors have not been paid their dues as the Assam government has "not cleared the bills" worth over Rs 2 crore of the vendors for years, and this has severely affected the maintenance of these historical sites as many of them are not reporting for duties, official sources said.

These contractual staffers are the backbone of the Directorate of Archaeology in taking care of the 167 recognised monuments across the state, as there are only 25 permanent government employees in these historical sites, they said.

The strength of the permanent employees is not even 15 per cent of the total number of such historical sites.

Several employees of the two contractors - CIIMS and Sankar Pujari - told PTI that they have "not received their dues since November 2024".

"I joined the site of Charaideo Moidams in August 2024 through CIIMS and got the salary on time for the first month of my tenure so far. I received half of my September salary in October, while the remaining half I got in November. The October salary was cleared in December," a contractual staffer, engaged as a junior research assistant, said on condition of anonymity.

The junior research assistant received half of the November dues in mid-January, and thereafter, "no payment has been made till now", he said.

He claimed that the salary payment has always been irregular, and many employees have not even received October's dues.

"Most of the staffers have stopped reporting for work, but I am still coming with the hope that I will get my dues. We are educated and want to work for the preservation of our heritage. But if the government does not look after us, how will we survive?" asked the youth, disappointed over the non-payment of salary.

The same is the experience of another person, who is engaged as a sweeper at one of the landmark sites. He has to feed a family of four, and has started working as a daily wage earner in the nearby town.

"Can you believe that there is no security at the Charaideo Moidam, which is the only UNESCO Heritage Site of the Archaeology Department? The salaries of the employees were not paid since December, and they have stopped coming to work now," another contractual employee said.

The contractual employees of CIIMS are engaged as monument attendants, junior research assistants, research assistants and young archaeologists in the fixed monthly pay range of Rs 14,000 to Rs 30,000.

The workers supplied by Sankar Pujari are in the housekeeping, security and cleaning departments, who get emoluments in the range of Rs 12,000 to Rs 18,000.

A senior official of the Directorate of Archaeology, who did not wish to be identified, claimed that the two contractors have not received more than Rs 2 crore against their bills for several years now.

"Their bills are pending from the 2023-24 fiscal year. A few bills of one contractor in 2024-25 were cleared, but most are still pending. We forwarded everything on time, and bills were sanctioned also, but we did not get ceiling approval from the state finance department," he said.

He also said that the contractors were giving salaries to their staffers from their own pockets till around November last year, but the financial load mounted gradually, and finally, it became unmanageable for them.

Another official accepted an allegation that no routine maintenance work is taking place in any of the monuments, except the Charaideo Moidams, and said it is giving a negative impression in the minds of visitors.

"During the monsoon season, the surroundings are full of grasses and shrubs. However, no one is there to trim them. Likewise, the restrooms are also getting dirtier because of the absence of the sweepers," he added.

The official also stated that there are no separate maintenance funds, and that is why no daily wage earner could be engaged at the monument sites for cleaning purposes.

"From the permanent employees' point of view, we are heavily short-staffed. We have 25 monument attendants, while we need at least 200 people for these sites," he said.

When contacted, Archaeology Director Deepi Rekha Kouli accepted the problem and said the government is in the process of solving the matter soon.

"Yes, there have been some issues in giving the salaries on time. However, the process is on and we hope that the salaries will be released soon," Kouli told PTI.

She declined to comment further on the issue.

Of the 167 monuments, the most celebrated one is the Moidams, the mound-burial system of the Ahom Dynasty, in Charaideo district. These were included on the UNESCO World Heritage list in July last year.

For their role in preparing the documents for the application to include Moidams on the UNESCO list, a team of the Directorate of Archaeology was conferred the Assam government award 'Karmashree' in 2024.

The government, in December 2024, sent an eight-member team on a 10-day tour to Egypt to visit various iconic world heritage sites to have "knowledge and ideas to implement in future projects for the preservation of monuments in Assam".