The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) has sought Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal Malik’s intervention into the state government’s move to relocate the Dalit Sikh residents of Harijan Colony (Punjabi Lane).
This comes after the Meghalaya government decided to relocate the Sikhs residents of Harijan Colony in Shillong based on the recommendation of the high-level committee (HLC).
The DSGMC has requested Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal Malik to look into the matter and “provide the long settlers/Harijan community of the state of Meghalaya an immediate solution for the same”.
Earlier, Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma had said that the state government would challenge in the court any order issued by the different commissions forbidding shifting of the Harijan Colony residents.
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The Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) had rejected the observations of the high-level committee (HLC) and claimed the Harijan Colony land, donated by the Syiem of Mylliem 200 years ago, belongs to the 250 Sikh families.
The Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC), the representative body of Dalit Sikhs living in the Harijan Colony (Punjabi Lane) has vowed to “fight till last breath against the illegal, unethical and unjust action of the BJP-led coalition government”.
“Poor Sikhs who have served the state are being made victims of forcible eviction under the pressure of land mafia since the previously inaccessible area is now a prime property,” Gurjit Singh, president, HPC, had said.
The HPC said the 2.5 acres of the colony land belonged to the residents whose ancestors had come from Punjab two centuries ago. The land, they claim, was donated by a Khasi tribal chieftain to them before 1863.