SHILLONG:
The Meghalaya High Court on October 21 asked the Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) to respond to the proposal of the state government for relocation of 342 families of Harijan Colony from Them Iew Mawlong within four weeks’ time.
While hearing the matter, a division bench said the state has informed that a proposal, along with the blueprint for the relocation, has been forwarded to the HPC under cover of a letter dated September 30.
“Since the respondent committee says that it is assessing the proposal, the respondents are requested to respond to the proposal within the next four weeks. Let the matter appear two months hence,” the bench said. The next hearing is scheduled to be held on February 16.
On September 29, the state government presented the blueprint to the HPC during a meeting, which indicated its decision to construct multi-storey flats at the existing official quarters of the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) for relocation of the 342 families. The state government had outrightly rejected the April 25 proposal of the HPC that 200 square meters of land be provided to each of the 342 families within the European Ward besides bearing the cost of construction of their homes.
After the meeting, HPC secretary Gurjit Singh had expressed concern that the government had rejected its eight-point resolution.
“The government has instead come up with its own blueprint. Therefore, we will first study the blueprint, we will go back to the people of our community to discuss and take a collective decision then we will come back to the government,” he had said.