SHILLONG, May 2: The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) pilloried Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Thursday for his statement that he will reverify and then, return with a clarification on the RTI reply received by the organisation which indicated that 148 of the 342 families of Harijan Colony at Them Iew Mawlong are illegal settlers.
“This statement of the Deputy CM is a joke in one way. How can he send our representation to the same department which replied to our RTI application,” HYC president Roy Kupar Synrem told reporters.
“Does it mean they will change the data or the fact? How can the government now say a particular person is an employee of the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) after we raised this issue? They will be in trouble if they decide to change the fact,” he warned.
He said the HYC will take necessary action after going through the clarification by the SMB.
According to him, Tynsong said the meeting with the Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) on May 7 will be the last meeting.
“We anticipate that the move will initiate the exercise of relocation as people waited for this to happen for more than six years,” the HYC president said.
He said they have no issues if quarters are provided to the employees of the state government but they will strongly oppose if the same is done for people who are not government employees.
After receiving the RTI reply from the SMB, the HYC had asked the government to evict the 148 illegal settlers from Them Iew Mawlong.
To a query, Synrem said they have not come across any government which has the political will to take decisions on any matter.
“We have seen committees come and go but we have not seen the result yet. The present dispensation is no different from the other dispensations. We hope it will finally take a decision as we want these people to be relocated. We don’t want the same issue to crop up again and affect the security of the state as a whole,” he said.
He threatened that the HYC will do what is necessary if the government continues to buy time.
Earlier, Tynsong stated that the HYC had submitted a memorandum to him, referring to the RTI reply that said there are only 194 families. The government had earlier claimed that there are 342 families.
“I told them that it is subject to verification again. I have already sent back this copy to the CEO of SMB as well as the Director of Urban Affairs where they have to reverify and come back with the details,” Tynsong said.
He recalled that an RTI application was filed on the Saubhagya scheme when he was looking after the Power department. He said if he remembered correctly, the RTI reply and the actual things that they had in the file were different.
“I don’t say it is in totality correct. That’s why, I sent it back to the department concerned to bring back all details. If required, a clarification has to be given,” he had said.
He added that the government would go ahead with the meeting with the HPC on May 7 to discuss the relocation of the residents from Them Iew Mawlong.
