The Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) has rejected the Meghalaya government’s high-level committee (HLC) report on the relocation of employees of Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) and other departments from the Sweeper’s Colony at Them Iew Mawlong.
“We will fight tooth and nail and stop all illegal acts of the Meghalaya government,” said HPC secretary Gurjit Singh on Friday.
Singh said, “Challenging the recently submitted HLC report of the Conrad K Sangma-led state government on the ownership of the land of poor Sikhs at Bara Bazar, Shillong, the HPC, representing the interests of hundreds of families living there for the past 200 years and more, have rejected the report, portions of which were revealed to the media yesterday (Thursday),” it said.
The urban affairs department was asked to find locations for the relocation of “illegal settlers” as per report of the HLC, which was headed by deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong. The report was placed before the cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Conrad K Sangma on Thursday.
The HLC was formed by the state government to find a feasible solution for the relocation of Sweeper’s Colony from Them Iew Mawlong following the 2018 violent protest at Motphran.
Responding to Sangma’s statement that the process of taking over land at Sweeper’s Colony will be completed within a week, Singh said, “We will fight for our rights till our last breath. We will die for our land and will not allow any illegal, unlawful, unethical and unjust action by the Meghalaya government.”
Issuing a warning, Singh said, “The matter is sub-judice in Supreme Court of India and the Meghalaya government would be committing a breach of procedures if it insists on going ahead with its illegal plans.”
“We are the legitimate owners of the so-called disputed 2.5 acres of land, as it was gifted to our ancestors by the tribal chief Syiem of Hima Mylliem. No one else has the right to this land.”
Singh further said, “The present Syiem of Hima Mylliem is being pressured by granting him ownership of a large chunk of the land. Under local laws, too, he too has no authority to retake a gift given by his predecessors.”
He said the tripartite agreement between the Syiem of Hima Mylliem, urban affairs and the Shillong municipal board had no legal locus-standi and was patently illegal.
The HPC secretary also said the first time the government tried to browbeat the Sikhs was by letting anti-social elements attack their homes in 2018. Now, after failing in court, the government was again using strong-arm tactics, he added.
He also said even government employees could not be forcefully moved to another location.
He alleged that the so-called HLC was headed by deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong, who had throughout been biased against poor Sikh residents of the area.
Singh also alleged that the cabinet had failed to appreciate the genesis of the case, which is that Sikhs who have served their state, are now being made victims of forcible eviction because the then inaccessible area was now prime property.
“We fail to understand why the government is in such a hurry when a status quo has been ordered by the Meghalaya High Court at Shillong on April 9, after a series of litigations,” he said.
He added that the high court had also ordered status quo on the activities of the HLC, which was formed on June 4, 2018, and that submitted its report on September 28.
“In view of the order of Justice Sen of the Meghalaya High Court of February 15, 2019, saying the title deed of the Punjabi Colony has to be settled by filing a title suit and not through any unilateral decision of the Meghalaya government,” he said.
“Since the attack in 2018, after several visits and hearings, National Commission for Minorities, National Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Safai Karamcharis had also ordered status quo and no relocation,” he said, adding that the Meghalaya government’s claim that it will act on the findings of the HLC on relocating government employees and others from the area was a clear violation of these orders.
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