SHILLONG:
The Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) has retaliated to a statement of the Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong, regarding the proposed relocation plan of the residents of Harijan Colony.
HPC secretary Gurjit Singh said, “It is a very casual and callous response and I am surprised that the Deputy Chief Minister of a state should resort to stating facts in an incorrect manner.”
Singh said the residents of Harijan Colony were always ready for talks and as mentioned in their earlier reply and it is a position that they have stated many times to the government and to the High Court of Meghalaya.
“We have stated on many occasions that the solution to this vexed problem can be only through talks in a spirit of give and take as well as in recognising the rights of each and every citizen of the area, without pressure, duress, and misrepresentation,” the HPC secretary said.
On the statement of Tynsong that the government will present details to the high court, Singh said that such details should have been presented earlier.
“The question that we have posed and to which the government has now reacted is, why were details not presented earlier?” he said.
Singh also said that it is unbecoming of a leader to misrepresent facts to the public through the media.
The HPC secretary said that the blueprint presented to the residents of Harijan Colony is incomplete and there is no timeline.
“There are residents living there, the proposed homes are pigeonholes, and the question of title to the area to be given to families has not been specified. How can we play a blind game with the lives of hundreds of families -men, women, and children,” he said.
Singh also said that it is another shocker that the Deputy Chief Minister, who had earlier recognised that they are not illegal settlers, is now saying, “How is it possible that they are staying there for 160 years? May we remind the Deputy Chief Minister and the people of Meghalaya that we have been here since 1863 and we are in possession of authentic documents under the name and seal of the Syiem of Hima Mylliem,” Singh added.
He pointed to a letter from 2008, the Syiem of Mylliem who said, inter alia, “…the plot of land was allotted to them a long time back by the predecessors of the Syiem of Hima Mylliem till today.”
The HPC secretary said that in another 1954 document, it is categorically mentioned that the land belongs to the residents of the Harijan Colony.
He also said that there are many other historical references as to how their forefathers were brought here by the then-British army higher-ups from the Gurdaspur and Amritsar districts of Punjab.
“In fact, by virtue of the fact that we are here for more than two centuries, makes us also historical residents, and by virtue of tradition and culture, we too become indigenous peoples,” Singh said.
The HPC secretary said that by asking them for appropriate accommodation, the residents are demanding their rights and not seeking merciful largesse from the government.
“Let it be known to everyone, loud and clear that we are legitimate residents of the Punjabi Lane,” Singh said.