Work on relocating Sikhs near completion: Meghalaya Deputy CM

Tribune News Service
Kolkata, August 28

Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong today said the high-level committee headed by him would soon submit to the state government its recommendations regarding relocation of Dalit Sikhs of Shillong’s Harijan Colony (also known as Punjabi Lane).

A press conference by Tynsong at Shillong was held after a lengthy meeting between him and Urban Affairs Minister Hamletson Dohling.

Land given 150 years ago: residents

According to the Harijan Panchayat Committee, which represents the Sikh residents of the colony, the land was granted to a group of people more than 150 years ago by the then tribal chief of the area. State government agencies such as the Shillong Municipal Board had no jurisdiction over the land, the committee said.

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Tynsong had set up a sub-committee under Dohling to take up with the ‘Hima Mylliem’ (a traditional Khasi tribal institution) the issue of the land inhabited by Harijan Colony residents. Dohling today submitted the report of the sub-committee to Tynsong.

According to the Harijan Panchayat Committee, which represents the Sikh residents of the colony, the land was granted to a group of people more than 150 years ago by the then tribal chief of the area. State government agencies such as the Shillong Municipal Board had no jurisdiction over the land, the committee said.

After meeting Dohling, Tynsong said the work was nearing completion. “The committee will sit again next week and in all probability, this will be followed by submission of recommendations to the state government,” Tynsong said. He, however, refused to share any detail with regard to the report given to him by Dohling.

The Harijan Panchayat Committee, spearheading the fight against the Meghalaya Government’s attempt to evict Sikh residents from their homes, had earlier said that the committee was “partisan” and they would not accept its “decision”.