SHILLONG: Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba will hold a meeting with Chief Secretary P S Thangkhiew in New Delhi on Thursday to discuss the Harijan Colony issue.
Sources said the chief secretary received a letter from the Home ministry regarding the meeting on Thursday to discuss the Harijan Colony issue to ensure that there is no law and order problem.
Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong has termed the development as positive since the state and the central government can jointly discuss the matter.
The chief secretary said he will present the status of the issue to the Home ministry official.
Answering a query, the chief secretary said it is not a summon by the Home ministry but a meeting as the ministry wants to understand the ground reality.
After a lull, the contentious issue is in the news after the state government had served fresh inventory notice to the Harijan Colony residents, who, however, had threatened to issue contempt of court notice to the government.
Later, the banned HNLC threatened to target the Harijan Colony residents which had evoked criticism.
The dispute is that while the government claims that the land belongs to it, the residents are of the view that the land was donated to them by the Syiem of Mylliem.
As far as law and order is considered, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said the state government was in touch with the ministry of Home Affairs.
When asked whether the MHA summoned the state government over the issue, the chief minister said the issue is important for the Centre.
The Centre had inquired about the matter from the day one when the issue surfaced, he said.
“I have visited MHA multiple times and have been in touch with them. Since law and order is an important issue for us, we give due importance to it,” Sangma said.
Refusing to admit that the MHA has summoned the Meghalaya government over the issue, he added that it is a practice and Meghalaya government accordingly reports whatever incidents and small things which take place to the union government on a regular basis.
Stating that the union government has recently inquired about the status of the issue form the state government, he added both the governments are in touch with each other since different states, groups and communities are involved in the matter and the government wants to ensure that the situation does not escalate.
