Meghalaya govt decides to evict Sikhs from ‘Punjabi Lane’ in Shillong

Days after a high-level committee in Meghalaya really useful relocation of evicting Sikhs staying ‘illegally’ at ‘Punjabi Lane’ in Shillong, Sikh teams have began opposing the transfer. Today Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa stated he’ll take up the matter of alleged eviction of Sikhs in Shillong with the Union Home Minister.
The Harijan Panchayat Committee, consultant of Sikhs in Shillong, has additionally strongly opposed the transfer, saying it should “fight tooth and nail” to cease the federal government from finishing up the drive. The HPC secretary Gurjit Singh advised PTI, “The HPC, which represents the interests of hundreds of Dalit Sikh families living in Them lew Mawlong area or Punjabi Lane for the past many years, has rejected the report of the high-level committee.”
Singh additionally stated that the two.5-acre colony, positioned near the state’s greatest conventional market, served as lifeline to many households, who had arrange retailers and different companies within the space. He additional added, “We will die for our land but won’t allow any illegal, unlawful, unethical and unjust action by the Meghalaya government.”
The state govt had taken the choice to relocate the Sikhs from the Them lew Mawlong space of the state capital Shillong, following a suggestion by a high-level committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong. The govt intends to make use of the realm to deal with govt workers.
Cabinet met as we speak to debate the suggestions of the High Level Committee on the Sweepers’ Colony problem. Following are the suggestions by the committee & the best way ahead: pic.twitter.com/NU9ZkE95cO— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) October 7, 2021
On Thursday, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had tweeted to tell that the cabinet had met to debate the suggestions of the High-Level Committee on the Sweepers’ Colony problem.
The CM stated that the committee had really useful the city affairs division to discover a appropriate location for the relocation of people that reside within the space, as these serving with the state authorities might be relocated to the official quarters of the involved departments. CM Sangma stated, “The Committee also recommended shifting of the permanent municipal employees, who are currently residing in the Colony to the quarters that have been constructed. Further, we will request the other residents residing in the Colony to shift to the designated locations.”
CM Sangma additionally laid down plans of the Meghalaya authorities through which he stated, “The process of signing the tripartite agreement & taking possession of the land by the Govt in Urban Affairs Dept. from the Syiem of Mylliem has started and the whole process should be completed by next week.”
1. The technique of signing the tripartite settlement & taking possession of the land by the Govt in Urban Affairs Dept. from the Syiem of Mylliem has began and the entire course of needs to be accomplished by subsequent week.— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) October 7, 2021
According to experiences, the Meghalaya authorities has been making an attempt to evict the Dalit Sikh neighborhood from the Them lew Mawlong space in Shillong for a very long time now. The land legal guidelines of Meghalaya however states that neither the state nor the Shillong Municipal Board have any proper over the land that belonged to the Sikhs of the Harijan Colony, also called Sweepers’ Colony in Shillong. Also, the state authorities had beforehand failed in its makes an attempt to take away the Sikhs because the management of the land in query lied with the normal Khasi chieftain generally known as Syiem.
To resolve this, the method to switch the possession of the land from the native tribal chieftain (syiem) to the state has been began in order that the federal government has been began in order that steps to evict Sikhs from the realm will be taken. The High-Level Committee was arrange in 2018 to settle the land dispute.
Around 350 Sikh households reside within the space, the place they’ve been residing for over two centuries. They declare that the land was donated by a Khasi tribal chieftain to them earlier than 1863. However, the tribal communities in Meghalaya take into account them as outsiders, and need to evict them from the guts of the capital metropolis.