Mi­nori­ties Com­mis­sion or­ders stay, Sched­uled Castes Com­mis­sion to in­quire, Dy CM Pun­jab chal­lenges Megha­laya re­lo­ca­tion of Shil­long Sikhs

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What has come as a wel­come re­lief to the deeply trou­bled poor Sikhs of Shilling re­sid­ing in the Pun­jabi Lane -Har­i­jan Colony of Shil­long, In­di­a’s Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Mi­nori­ties has or­dered stay, the Sched­uled Castes Com­mis­sion has mooted for in­ves­ti­ga­tion and en­quiry and Pun­jab Deputy Chief Min­is­ter Sukhjin­der Singh Rand­hawa has vowed to take up the mat­ter with In­di­a’s Home Min­is­ter and Megha­laya Chief Min­is­ter, while strongly op­pos­ing forcible evic­tion of Shil­long Sikh set­tlers. The Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee has ap­pre­ci­ated and wel­comed sup­port from all quar­ters. WSN re­ports.

Tak­ing suo-moto cog­ni­sance of news re­ports, the Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Mi­nori­ties in its or­der dated 8 Oc­to­ber 2021, has or­dered the stay of the Megha­laya gov­ern­ment rec­om­men­da­tion based on the re­cently re­leased re­port of the High- Level Com­mit­tee of the gov­ern­ment in­sti­tuted in 2018 and the re­port sub­mit­ted on 28 Sep­tem­ber 2021.

The or­der states, “The Com­mis­sion has taken suo-moto cog­nizance of the news re­ported in the print me­dia re­gard­ing the de­ci­sion of the State gov­ern­ment (of Megha­laya) to shift the em­ploy­ees of Shil­long Mu­nic­i­pal Board (SMB) and other de­part­ments of the gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya from the Har­i­jan Colony and to find an al­ter­na­tive lo­ca­tion for re­lo­cat­ing the “il­le­gal set­tlers.”

Iqbal Singh LalpuraThe newly-ap­pointed  NCM chief Iqbal Singh Lalpura has is­sued cat­e­gor­i­cal in­struc­tions say­ing, “…. the Com­mis­sion has di­rected the Chief Sec­re­tary of Megha­laya to fur­nish a de­tailed re­port and to main­tain sta­tus quo in the mat­ter as di­rected by the Hon’ble High Court of Megha­laya.”

Speak­ing ex­clu­sively to The World Sikh News, Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee sec­re­tary Gur­jit Singh said, “While we are reel­ing un­der the pres­sure of the ut­ter­ances and ac­tions of the High-Level Com­mit­tee of the Megha­laya gov­ern­ment for the past three years, it has come as a mat­ter of great re­lief that gov­ern­men­tal in­sti­tu­tions have re­sponded with sup­port for the poor Sikhs of Shil­long, re­sid­ing in the Pun­jabi lane for the last more than 200 years.”

Shillong Sikhs

The Megha­laya High Court at Shil­long has passed or­ders for sta­tus quo and the mat­ter is un­der con­sid­er­a­tion of the Supreme Court of In­dia, still, the Con­rad Sangma-led gov­ern­ment, af­ter con­sid­er­a­tion of the High-Level Com­mit­tee re­port in a cab­i­net meet­ing, has ig­nored these and has an­nounced that they will take pos­ses­sion of the 2.5 acres of the land within a week. 

The Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee, on be­half of the hun­dreds of fam­i­lies liv­ing from hand to mouth in the Pun­jabi Lane area, which was ear­lier a non­de­script area, but now has be­come a prime area, in a press note, re­leased late evening, has ex­pressed re­lief at this or­der.  

It is re­li­ably learnt that the Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Mi­nori­ties has sum­moned the gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya, with full records on 15 Oc­to­ber 2021. 

Speak­ing to the me­dia, Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee sec­re­tary Gur­jit Singh said, “We are grate­ful to Mi­nori­ties Com­mis­sion, Sched­uled Caste Com­mis­sion, Pun­jab gov­ern­ment and Sikh bod­ies -DS­GMC and SGPC, Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal, United Sikhs and all other vol­un­teers, ac­tivists and lead­ers who have stood by us in this hour of great dif­fi­culty, when we strug­gle to save our dwellings and liveli­hood.”

It is re­li­ably learnt that the Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Mi­nori­ties has sum­moned the gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya, with full records on 15 Oc­to­ber 2021. 

For the poor Mazhabi Sikhs of the Bara Bazar area, who have been run­ning from pil­lar to post, knock­ing on the doors of all gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions, this is a God-sent de­vel­op­ment.

“The Sched­uled Castes Com­mis­sion has de­cided to in­ves­ti­gate/​in­quire into the mat­ter in pur­suance of the pow­ers con­ferred upon it un­der Ar­ti­cle 338 of the Con­sti­tu­tion of In­dia.”

The Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee is glad to note that the Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Sched­uled Castes, has also taken suo-moto cog­nizance of the tak­ing up of the High-Level Com­mit­tee re­port by the Megha­laya gov­ern­ment and “the Com­mis­sion has de­cided to in­ves­ti­gate/​in­quire into the mat­ter in pur­suance of the pow­ers con­ferred upon it un­der Ar­ti­cle 338 of the Con­sti­tu­tion of In­dia.”

Shillong Sikhs protesting eviction threat

The Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Sched­uled Castes has so­licited de­tailed in­for­ma­tion, fail­ing which the Com­mis­sion would sum­mon the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Megha­laya gov­ern­ment.

Con­tin­u­ing to main­tain his in­ter­est in the lives and wel­fare of the Sikhs of Shil­long, the Pun­jab Deputy Chief Min­is­ter Sukhjin­der Singh Rand­hawa, who has vis­ited Shil­long twice since the il­le­gal move of the Megha­laya gov­ern­ment to re­lo­cate the Sikh set­tlers in 2018, has told a sec­tion of the me­dia that “I strongly op­pose the at­tempts to re­lo­cate Sikhs in Shil­long and I will take up this mat­ter with the Union Home Min­is­ter Mr Amit Shah and the Megha­laya Chief Min­is­ter Con­rad Sangma.”

“The Pun­jab gov­ern­ment has in­ter­vened in the past and will in­ter­vene again, he warned. 

“It is the duty of the Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee to pro­tect the lives and rights of the poor Sikhs of Shil­long and we will do so at all costs and will not al­low the High-Level Com­mit­tee to have their il­le­gal way,”

Sim­i­larly, DS­GMC pres­i­dent Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa has promised full lo­gis­ti­cal sup­port as they have been giv­ing for the last three years. 

“It is the duty of the Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee to pro­tect the lives and rights of the poor Sikhs of Shil­long and we will do so at all costs and will not al­low the High-Level Com­mit­tee to have their il­le­gal way,” said HPC sec­re­tary Gur­jit Singh.

“We hope and pray that the gov­ern­men­t’s Com­mis­sions will take this mat­ter to its log­i­cal con­clu­sion and save the poor Sikhs of Shil­long,” added Gur­jit Singh.

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