Meghalaya: Fearing Eviction By State Government, Members Of Punjabi Community Seek Governor’s Protection

Punjabi community in Meghalaya urged the Governor Tathagata Roy to disband a committee, headed by Deputy Chief Minister of the state, for allegedly issuing orders aimed at displacing them, The Tribune has reported.

The Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC), which represents the community, requested Roy to take proactive steps to ensure that the authorities provide land pattas to 218 Sikh families living in the area.

In the aftermath of a violence that took place earlier this year, the state government had setup a high-level committee headed by deputy chief minister Prestone Tyngsong to consider all aspects of the incident.

HPC chairman Gurjit Singh, in a memorandum submitted to the governor, said that the high level committee "has been issuing illegal orders for survey of properties of the poor Sikhs to the Shillong Municipal Board with the intention of dislocation of Sikhs,"

Further, he alleged that high-level committee has been acting in a biased and malafide manner. The delegation also informed the governor that the Sikhs had come to the state two centuries ago to serve in the army and later became a part of the society.

Despite the fact that non-indigenous people in the state do not have the right to own land in the state, the Sikhs have requested the governor to protect their right to live and right to housing. Further, they requested the governor to rename their colony as ‘Punjabi colony’.