SGPC team asks Meghalaya govt to stop Shillong Sikhs’ relocation

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

Shillong, June 13

An SGPC team from Amritsar today met Meghalaya Home Minister James Sangma here and urged him that attempts being made to “relocate” the Sikh residents of Shillong’s Punjabi Lane must be stopped.

In a memorandum, the SGPC said the Sikh residents of Punjabi Lane were being harassed for the past 20 years in the name of relocation and removal. A fresh attempt is underway, they said.

The SGPC said this would be gross injustice since the Sikhs were staying in this area for over 150 years, a fact which has been acknowledged by the Syiem (the tribal chieftain) of the area.

The SGPC urged Sangma to intervene and direct the administration to refrain from taking any “unlawful action”. The Sikh families, whose forefathers had come here with the British as sanitation workers, have been contributing to the betterment of Meghalaya with their hard work, it added.

Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma is visiting Delhi tomorrow and SGPC representatives will meet him there. The SGPC team said the Home Minister assured full protection to residents of Punjabi Lane. “If granted permission, the SGPC will build a six-storey building for the Punjabi Lane residents,” SGPC’s Bhagwant Singh said.