Chal­leng­ing the re­cently sub­mit­ted High-Level Com­mit­tee re­port of the BJP-coali­tion Con­rad Sangma Megha­laya gov­ern­ment on the own­er­ship of the land of poor Sikhs at Bara Bazar, Shil­long, the Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee, rep­re­sent­ing the in­ter­ests of the hun­dreds of fam­i­lies of poor Sikhs liv­ing there for the past two hun­dred years and more, have re­jected the re­port, por­tions of which were re­vealed to the me­dia yes­ter­day by Chief Min­is­ter Con­rad Sangma. WSN re­ports. 

The Megha­laya Chief Min­is­ter Con­rad Sangma, af­ter a meet­ing of his cab­i­net,  stated that his gov­ern­ment, through the Ur­ban Af­fairs min­istry will com­plete the process of tak­ing over of land at Pun­jabi lane within a week, as they have al­ready en­tered into an agree­ment with the tribal over­lord Syiem of Hima Myl­liem.

The so-called High-Level com­mit­tee was headed by Deputy Chief Min­is­ter Pre­stone Tyn­song, who through­out has been bi­ased against the poor Sikh res­i­dents of the area.  

Lam­bast­ing the gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya for their re­peated at­tempts to dis­lodge and ha­rass the poor Sikhs in the Bara Bazar area, Gur­jit Singh, the sec­re­tary of the Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee, in a strongly-worded re­tort has said that, “We will fight for our rights till our last breath. We will die for our land and will not al­low any il­le­gal, un­law­ful, un­eth­i­cal and un­just ac­tion by the Megha­laya gov­ern­ment.”

At a press con­fer­ence yes­ter­day, Chief Min­is­ter Con­rad Sangma said that fol­low­ing the re­port of the High-Level Com­mit­tee, “the process of tak­ing over the land at Sweep­ers Colony at Them Iew Maw­long will be com­pleted within a week said,”

Speak­ing to The World Sikh News, Gur­jit Singh said, “First the gov­ern­ment tried to brow­beat us by let­ting anti-so­cial el­e­ments at­tack our homes in 2018. Now af­ter fail­ing in court, the gov­ern­ment is again us­ing strong-arm tac­tics. Even gov­ern­ment em­ploy­ees can­not be force­fully shifted to an­other lo­ca­tion.”

“It is ironic that the Cab­i­net has failed to ap­pre­ci­ate the gen­e­sis of the case, which is that poor Sikhs, who have served their state are now be­ing made vic­tims of forcible evic­tion un­der the pres­sure of land mafia and for the sim­ple rea­son that the then in­ac­ces­si­ble area, nearly two hun­dred years back, is now prime prop­erty,” he added.

The  High-Level Com­mit­tee was formed on 4 June 2018 and its re­port was sub­mit­ted on 28 Sep­tem­ber 2021.

Gur­jit Singh warned, “the mat­ter is sub-ju­dice in the Supreme Court of In­dia and the Megha­laya gov­ern­ment would be com­mit­ting a breach of pro­ce­dures if it in­sists on go­ing ahead with its il­le­gal plans.”

“We will fight for our rights till our last breath. We will die for our land and will not al­low any il­le­gal, un­law­ful, un­eth­i­cal and un­just ac­tion by the Megha­laya gov­ern­ment.”

Gur­jit Singh, Sec­re­tary, Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee, Shil­long

Rub­bish­ing the claims of the Chief Min­is­ter and the Ur­ban Af­fairs min­istry that they have en­tered into a tri­par­tite agree­ment of the land, the press re­lease of the Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee read, “We are the le­git­i­mate own­ers of the so-called dis­puted 2.5 acres of land, as it was gifted to our an­ces­tors by the tribal chief Syiem of Hima Myl­liem.  No one else has the right to this land. The pre­sent Syiem of Hima Myl­lieum is be­ing pres­sured by grant­ing him own­er­ship of a large chunk of the land. Un­der lo­cal laws too, he too has no au­thor­ity to re­take back a gift given by his pre­de­ces­sors. The tri­par­tite agree­ment be­tween the Syiem of Hima Myl­liem, Ur­ban Af­fairs and the Shil­long Mu­nic­i­pal Board has no le­gal lo­cus-standi and is patently il­le­gal.” 

Jus­tice Sen of the Megha­laya High Court, in an or­der on 15 Feb­ru­ary 2019, had clar­i­fied that the ti­tle deed of the Pun­jabi Colony has to be set­tled by fil­ing a ti­tle suit and not through any uni­lat­eral de­ci­sion of the Megha­laya gov­ern­ment. 

It may be noted that the gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya is in an in­or­di­nate hurry even though a sta­tus quo has been or­dered by the Megha­laya High Court at Shil­long on 9 April 2021.   

The gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya is in an in­or­di­nate hurry even though a sta­tus quo has been or­dered by the Megha­laya High Court at Shil­long on 9 April 2021.   

Fur­ther­more, since the at­tack in 2018, af­ter sev­eral vis­its and hear­ings, the Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Mi­nori­ties, the Na­tional Hu­man Rights Com­mis­sion and the Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Safai Karam­charis had also or­dered sta­tus quo and no re­lo­ca­tion of any­one from that area.  The claim of the Megha­laya gov­ern­ment that they will act on the find­ings of the High-Level Com­mit­tee on re­lo­cat­ing gov­ern­ment em­ploy­ees and oth­ers from the area is a clear vi­o­la­tion, among other things, of these or­ders. 

Spelling out de­tails of their fight for their le­git­i­mate right to their habi­tat, Gur­jit Singh said, “We will knock the doors of the Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Mi­nori­ties and ex­pe­dite cases in the Megha­laya High Court and the Supreme Court of In­dia.

Gur­jit Singh, speak­ing to The World Sikh News said, “The rec­om­men­da­tions of the Megha­laya Cab­i­net are to be con­signed to the dust­bin as they are patently il­le­gal and un­just.