SHILLONG, Dec 16: The Harijan Panchayat Committee on Thursday submitted a petition to Chairperson of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, M. Venkatesan on the issue of their relocation from Harijan Colony.
In their petition, the HPC said that in 2019 when the then member of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, Jagadish Hiremani had visited Shillong, he had categorically told the state government to safeguard the interests of residents of the Colony and not shift them from their present location.
They also said that the government has disregarded the suggestions and the residents were being forcibly removed. “Conspiratorial attempts are being made to deprive us of our home and hearth by taking away land which was given by the ruler of this place to our forefathers, nearly 200 years ago,” HPC said.
“We have been contesting for our rights for the last two decades and continue to live in fear. We have knocked on the doors of the state and central government and all its institutions on multiple occasions, but the government of Meghalaya is unrelenting even in the face of court orders to the contrary,” it added.
