SHILLONG, April 28: United Democratic Party (UDP) working president, Paul Lyngdoh on Thursday termed the demands of the Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) for relocating from Them Iew Mawlong as “absurd, illogical and against the basic tenet of equal opportunity and justice”.
He said the residents should simply be shifted to the quarters built by the state government on sufficient land in and around Shillong.
“The area is supposed to house the employees of Shillong Municipal Board (SMB). If government employees start demanding permanent land and buildings to be built by the government, it will set an unacceptable precedent for all government servants to make similar demands,” Lyngdoh said.
“In this case, the moot point is that we have laws like the Land Transfer Act and the Eviction from Public Premises Act, 1980. This area has clearly been established as belonging to the SMB, which means it comes under the definition of public premises and whoever are occupying such premises can be evicted as per the Act,” he said, pointing out that government servants have a fixed tenure of service after which they are asked to move out of their quarters.
“On humanitarian consideration, we are saying that these people should be shifted to government quarters where only government servants will be accommodated,” he added.
Recalling that he had in 2006 proposed a flyover from Rap’s Mansion in the vicinity of the High Court of Meghalaya and over the defence land to Harijan Colony, Lyngdoh said, “We should go back to that proposal.”
He also recalled meeting former Defence Minister AK Antony with a detailed proposal for the flyover so the traffic woes at Khyndailad junction could be addressed and congestion of the city eased.
Lyngdoh, a former urban affairs minister, said the government during his tenure had paid land compensation to the Goenkas and M Nongkynrih in pursuance of that proposal.
“They received compensation in anticipation that their land would be used for the flyover project, which should be renewed,” he added.
Lyngdoh said the only hurdle before the proposal was the army policy of taking land for land and not cash for land. “The water sports complex at Umiam adjacent to the highway (GS Road) was offered to them. That is already with them but they were negotiating with the government for the transfer of the water sports complex in lieu of 8 acres of Defence land,” he said.
