Don’t evict Shillong Sikhs: Minorities panel to Punjab CM

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 8

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, currently in Delhi meeting various dignitaries, was today stung by two missives from different quarters on the issue of the Dalit Sikhs of state capital Shillong who are resisting the state government’s attempt to evict them from their homes.

Need to Find solution

A peaceful resolution must be arrived at in accordance with the HC order, keeping in mind the claim that Sikhs had been residing in the area for 170 years. Iqbal Singh Lalpura, NCM Chief

The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) today asked the CM to refrain from pressing the Dalit Sikhs of Shillong’s Harijan Colony (Punjabi Lane/Sweepers’ Lane) to vacate the neighbourhood.

“The Sikhs living in Punjabi Lane, Shillong, should not be displaced,” NCM chairperson Iqbal Singh Lalpura wrote to Sangma.

An official communiqué said the commission took note of reports in the media regarding the Meghalaya Government decision to shift the staff of Shillong Municipal Board and other departments from the area “where the Sikh families are settled since the 19th century”. Lalpura said the matter must be handled with sensitivity.

The Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC), representative body of the Dalit Sikhs living in Harijan Colony, has also written to the CM highlighting various instances of doublespeak and subterfuge resorted to by the state government regarding relocation of the residents. In the letter, HPC secretary Gurjit Singh said while on the one hand, the government was making public statements about inviting the Harijan Colony residents for talks, on the other it was talking about evicting the residents.

He demanded that the CM must invite them for an agenda-based talk. The HPC never received any invitation for talks from the high-level committee (HLC) constituted by the state government to recommend modalities for relocating the residents of Harijan Colony.

“Your statement and that of your deputy that the HLC did not receive any representation or objections from the affected people were far from true,” he wrote to Sangma.

The HPC secretary also questioned the authenticity of the state government claim regarding employees of the Shillong Municipal Board having been allotted residences in another part of the city. He asked for copies of allotment letters.

He also questioned government’s reluctance to make public the agreement handing over the Harijan Colony land to it by the local tribal chief and alleged the agreement was not legally tenable. “We are committed to holding on till our last breath and Sikh history bears testimony to our determination,” the HPC secretary wrote.