SHILLONG: The Meghalaya government has given the Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) a 15-day time period to arrive at a final decision regarding the proposed relocation plan.
Representatives of the government, headed by the Deputy Chief Minister in charge of the Urban Affairs Department Sniawbhalang Dhar, held a meeting with the leaders of the HPC and other Sikh bodies on Saturday to discuss the relocation of the 342 families from Them Iew Mawlong (Harijan Colony).
Notably, the issue of relocating the Harijan Colony settlers has remained unresolved for six years since 2018.
Dhar said, “The state government has agreed to give them 15 days to take a final call regarding the relocation issue. They said they would like to take everyone on board and discuss the matter with other organizations,” he added.
The HPC had earlier accepted the proposal and blueprint for the relocation of the Harijan Colony families to the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) quarters on Bishop Cotton Road.
Dhar said that no organizations from outside Meghalaya would be allowed to interfere as the matter is ‘strictly between the government and the HPC’.
Jagdeep Singh, representing the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, expressed optimism about the meeting’s outcome but acknowledged that some issues still need to be ironed out.
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Harijan Colony is inhabited by people from Punjab who were brought to Shillong about 200 years ago by the British to work as sweepers and manual scavengers.
Following a spate of violence in Shillong in 2018 that necessitated a nearly two-month-long curfew, calls for the relocation of Harijan Colony residents intensified. The area remains under heavy police guard to this day.
