The Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) has sought the intervention of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis to halt the move of the Meghalaya government to relocate all settlers from Sweepers Colony at Them Ïew Mawlong here.
In a letter to National Commission for Safai Karamcharis chairman M Venkatesan, said the Harijan Colony has become a bone of contention between the poor Mazhabi Sikh sweepers and the government of Meghalaya directly and with the Shillong Municipal Board indirectly.
“We wish to reiterate that in 2019 when the then member of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis Jagadish Hiremani visited Shillong, he categorically told the government to safeguard our interests. In his communiqué to the Chief Minister of Meghalaya, he had asked the government not to evict/shift the manual scavengers/Safai Karamcharis from their present place of living in Shillong. Unfortunately, the government, as the latest developments show, has disregarded the suggestions, primarily asking the government of Meghalaya not to shift the poor residents of the Harijan Colony in the Bara Bazar area in the heart of Shillong to any other area,” the HPC said.
Stating that the Harijan Colony is the abode of the Mazhabi Sikhs for the last nearly 200 years, HPC said at present there are around 300 families living in this place working in various state and central government offices, quasi-government offices as well as some in private jobs.
“We have been living here for generations, yet we are being labeled as illegal settlers. All government documentation -mention in voters lists, Aadhar cards, electricity meters, etc are available for each and every resident. The Gurdwara Sahib here is nearly 150 years old,” HPC said.
It also said that when manual scavenging was declared illegal, this profession was taken away from the Mazhabi Sikh community and the present count of employees doing work as Safai Karamcharis is down to around 128.
“Of these only 16 are permanent employees and the rest have been categorised as contractual employees so that the government is not liable to them for any facility, concessions and dues of a permanent employee. These contractual employees have been in service for 10-30 years. Despite this, they are not being made permanent employees. There are around 80 employees with the government of Meghalaya, around 55 with the Central government and quasi-government bodies and around 90 are in private jobs, all of whom are Safai Karamcharis,” HPC informed.
“It is our strong belief that this is part of the malafide design to dwindle the strength of our community as employees. On the one hand, we are being forcibly removed from jobs and on the other, conspiratorial attempts are being made to deprive us of our home and hearth by taking away land which was given by the ruler of this place to our forefathers, nearly 200 years ago. We have written evidence that prior to 1854, the King had allocated this space to our community, plus there are many court orders confirming this, still, the government has decided to take away our homes, places of worship and our educational institution,” it added.
HPC also said that there is a clear order of status quo by the High Court of Meghalaya dated April 9, 2021. Similarly, in an order dated February 15, 2019, Justice S R Sen of the Meghalaya High Court had clarified that the title deed of the Punjabi Colony has to be settled by filing a title suit and not through any unilateral decision of the Meghalaya government.
“It appears that the government is now in full readiness to forcibly evict us from our homes. We are living for 200 years and therefore we have full rights over this land. To rub salt on our wounds, the government calls all of us illegal settlers as well as brings up the bogey of it being a slum and takes the high ground of taking care of their health, it is necessary to shift them,” it said.
Urging the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis to convene a full meeting and take up this issue on a priority basis “so that the poorest of poor people residing in this colony for more than 200 years are not forcibly evicted by the Meghalaya government”, the HPC also requested the commission to ensure that the government complies with the orders and recommendations of the commission.
