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Punjab Government Bypasses Meghalaya State To Fund Welfare Of Shillong Sikhs, Prompting Criticism
Police in Meghalaya (Thierry Falise/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The Meghalaya government seems to have been irked by the Punjab government’s decision to provide funds for the welfare of Sikhs living on Punjabi Lane in Shillong without informing it. The matter was brought up in the state Assembly by Urban Affairs Department Minister Hamlet Dohling, reports The Hindu.
He informed lawmakers that the Punjab government had sanctioned Rs 1.5 lakh meant for 10 Sikh widows in 2015, and Rs 10 lakh to build the Guru Nanak School at Bara Bazar in 2016.
“I am surprised that the Punjab government had sanctioned funds directly to the East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner without informing the State government,” he remarked, while giving a reply to a supplementary question from Congress MLA from East Shillong, Ampareen Lyngdoh.
Nationalists Congress Party (NCP) MLA Saleng A Sangma slammed the government saying the matter showed its irresponsible attitude.
Shillong had previously witnessed clashes in 2018 between minority Dalit Sikhs and the majority Khasi tribals. The North-East is no stranger to such conflicts of an ethno-religious nature; in 1997 the Hindu Brus/Reangs of Mizoram were forced into a mass exodus from the state following the eruption of large-scale violence against them.
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