The Meghalaya High Court directed the residents of Punjabi Lane in Shillong to respond to the government’s plan to relocate them within a month.
Hearing the matter on Friday, a division bench of the high court directed the Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) to respond to the proposal of the state government to relocate 342 families from Them Iew Mawlong within four weeks.
The court said the state government has submitted a proposal along with the blueprint for the relocation and it has been forwarded to the HPC.
“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 will be held on February 16.
On September 29, the state government presented the blueprint to the HPC during a meeting. As per the proposed plan, multi-storied flats will be constructed at the site of the official quarters of the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) for the relocation of the 342 families.
Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said the state government has rejected the HPC’s demand that 200 square metres of land be provided to each of the 342 families, while also bearing the cost of construction of their houses.
The state government decided to relocate the “illegal settlers” — mainly Sikhs who have been living in the area for generations — on the recommendation of a high-level committee.
The committee, formed in June 2018, was tasked to resolve the decades-old land dispute in the area after violent clashes between Khasis and Sikhs the previous month.
