SHILLONG: A delegation comprising four NGOs on Monday met Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong demanding relocation of the residents of Punjabi Lane, or Them Iew Mawlong, at the earliest.
Tynsong is heading the High Level Committee set up by the government to find a solution to the long-pending issue.
Talking to media persons after the meeting, KSU president Lambokstarwell Marngar said the committee should take up the issue seriously.
He recalled that the government had earlier set up committees on various issues but they failed to deliver and added that the NGOs do not want the High Level Committee to become a tactic of the government to buy time.
Stating that the NGOs will keep a tab on the progress of HLC, Marngar said the panel was unable to give a time frame to the delegation on the relocation of the residents of Them Iew Mawlong.
Twelve organisations have demanded that the government conduct a survey and divide the residents of Them Iew Mawlong into employees of Shillong Municipal Board and illegal settlers.
According to the organisations, the illegal settlers should be evicted within one week as per the Eviction of Illegal Occupants Act.
They will wait for the committee’s decision with regards to the employees of SMB. The organisations maintained that no special treatment should be meted out to them.
KSU’s Marngar said the four NGOs – Khasi Students’ Union, Federation of Khasi Jaintia and Garo People, Hynniewtrep National Youth Front and Ri Bhoi Youth Federation – would put pressure on the government to immediately address this issue if its promises “are not in line with the desire of the people of the state”.
The joint delegation also asked the United Sikhs visiting the state to restrain from interfering and attempting to communalise the situation.
In a separate statement, Robert Kharjahrin, president of Hynniewtrep Youth Council that was one of the 12 organisations, said the current situation “is not about communal differences but it is the assault of a Khasi who was a juvenile and demand to relocate the residents of Sweepers’ Colony to make way for a parking lot and to widen the road”.
Tynsong said HLC is committed to finding a permanent solution to this issue and it is looking into the matter from scratch and this is the reason why it has asked for detailed land survey.
“We will move forward once we the get the survey map,” he added.
The 12 organisations have also demanded that the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council take suo motu action against the Harijan Panchayat Committee and that the area should not be called Punjabi Lane.
The 12 organisations are Hynniewtrep Youth Council, Synjuk Ki Sengsamla Shnong, Hynniewtrep A’chik National Movement, Meghalaya People United Front, Jaintia Students Union, Jaintia Youth Federation, All Jaintia Students Union, Ri Bhoi Students Union, Confederation of Ri Bhoi People, Western Youth Federation and West Khasi Student Union.
