Govt to move ahead as HPC maintains silence

SHILLONG, April 19: Deputy Chief Minister in-charge of Urban Affairs department, Sniawbhalang Dhar on Wednesday said the state government will have to move ahead on the issue of relocation of the residents of Harijan Colony as the Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) has not submitted its reply even after the expiry of the April 10 deadline.
“Maybe, we will have a meeting next week to discuss this matter as Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong is out of station. We are yet to fix the date of this meeting,” Dhar told reporters.
He said the matter will be deliberated upon at the High-Level Committee (HLC) which Tynsong heads.
Hoping that the HPC will be able to clear its position, he said the state government will try to resolve the matter within this month as per the directive of the High Court of Meghalaya.
The court had asked both sides to resolve the problem by April 2023.
“The parties are requested to resolve the matter in the month of April itself so that relocation, if any, can take place within the next two or three months,” a division bench, headed by Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee, had said in an order.
The next hearing will be held on April 24.