High-level panel to meet next week to discuss relocation of Harijans: Dhar

Shillong, May 15: Deputy Chief Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar on Monday said the high-level committee (HLC) is likely to meet next week to discuss the proposed relocation of the 342 families from Harijan Colony at Them Iew Mawlong.
“We are yet to receive any fresh order from the High Court but I can assure you that government will take its own course of action,” Dhar told reporters here.
Dhar also made it clear that it would not be possible for the government to accept the terms and conditions put forward by the Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) for the relocation.
After the HPC rejected the relocation blueprint prepared by the Urban Affairs Department, terming it as “incomplete, unsuitable, unprepared, unfair and undemocratic”, the state government had approached the High Court of Meghalaya, via an affidavit, urging the court’s intervention in the matter.
The affidavit submitted by the government in the high court mentions that the HPC has rejected the blueprint on the relocation of 342 Harijan families from Them Iew Mawlong.
The government had made it clear that it will welcome any move by the HPC to hold negotiations on the relocation proposal.