The Shillong Municipal Board, pursuing the agenda of the Meghalaya government is determined to uproot the poor Sikhs settled in the heart of Shillong since the last two hundred years. The World Sikh News presents the latest situation, as today, marks one year of the attack on the Sikhs in the area and to rub salt on Sikh wounds, the Shillong Municipal Board has issued another illegal notice seeking information about Sikhs in the area.  

Taking cue from the officially formed High Powered Committee, under the chairmanship of the Deputy Chief Minister of the state of Meghalaya, which has been expressly and categorically asked by the Shillong High Court, the National Commission for Minorities and the National Human Rights Commission to maintain status quo in the lane in which the poorest of the poor Sikhs live in Shillong, the Shillong Municipal Board, for the second time has ordered a grossly illegal census and inventory of the area through a public notice.

The Harijan Panchayat Committee which looks after the welfare of the residents of the area has asked the Municipal Committee to withdraw the order through a legal notice from their lawyers. “If they do not withdraw the illegal inventory orders, we will resort to peaceful satyagraha as we did last time, said Gurjeet Singh while speaking to World Sikh News.

The notice published in a section of the media reads, “In continuation of the General Public Notice No. SMB/PW/62/18-19 dated 26^th November 2018, wherein the Shillong Municipal Board has called upon the General Public who are claiming to be resident of Sweepers’ Colony at Mawlong Hat to come forward to furnish information with regards to their possession of either piece of land/building structure in Sweeper’s Colony and the period of their occupation. They are also requested to provide the supporting document, if any, in support of their claim of possession or residence.”

To rub salt on the wounds of the Sikhs, ironically this notice was sent on the eve of the anniversary of the attacks on the poor Sikhs of the area a year back.  It was on 31 May 2018, local tribal groups and student organisations attempted to unsettle and uproot through attacks, violence and protests. Since then, the Sikhs of the so-called Harijan Colony, condescendingly known as the Sweepers Colony, have been fighting a bitter legal battle to save their two-hundred-year-old habitat.

In an attempt to befool the people, the notice says that, “The object of the collecting information as to the number of persons residing in Sweeper’s colony and also their duration of occupation or stay in Sweepers’ Colony is to prepare both long term and short term policy for resolving long and pending issue pertaining to Sweepers’ Colony.”

People who have lived there for two centuries are being asked to furnish information in one month. The notice reads, “It is in the interest of the general public who are claiming to be resident of the said area to cooperate with the Shillong Municipal Board and furnish the information at the earliest. The residents of the Spwwers’ Colony are requested to come forward and furnish the information to the office of the Shillong Municipal Board during working hours (10.00 am to 05.00 pm) from the 3^rd June 2019 to 3^rd July 2019.”

From across India, Sikh social, religious and political organisations need to ask as to under what law is the Shillong Municipal Board doing this? Who has given them these rights?

Throughout the last year, the activists of the poor Sikhs, led by Gurjeet Singh, the chief of the Gurdwara Committee in Shillong has been running from pillar to post, from Chandigarh to Amritsar to Delhi, knocking on the doors of the SGPC, the Punjab government, the DSGMC, the National Commission for Minorities and the National Human Rights Commission, in the hope that justice would be delivered unto them.

Speaking to WSN on the phone from Shillong, Gurjeet Singh said, “Despite court orders, the government is hell-bent on uprooting us. They have been harassing us a great deal since the last one year.”

“The uncertainty of the situation is affecting our normal life. We are living in fear. Our legitimate rights are being throttled. The government is now disturbing our lives through the Shillong Municipal Board,” he added.

The World Sikh News is keeping a constant vigil on the developments in Shillong. Sikh organisations will have to step up their vigil and involvement to save the Sikhs there.