SHILLONG, April 26: North Shillong MLA Adelbert Nongrum and Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) have opposed the conditions set by the Harijan Panchayat Committee for the residents of Them Iew Mawlong to relocate.
The HPC has asked the government to allot 10 acres of land in the European Ward and bear the expenses for constructing the houses of the 342 families residing in the Harijan Colony.
Nongrum told reporters on Tuesday that the state government should not accept the conditions of the HPC. “The government should relocate only the employees of the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) and other government departments and evict those who are illegally settling in Them Iew Mawlong,” he said.
He said the demand of the HPC to allot land to all the 342 families is “totally unacceptable”.
The North Shillong MLA demanded that the HPC should specify how many of the 342 families are government employees.
Terming the MDA government as soft, he said the National People’s Party is trying to entertain the HPC as elections are a few months away. “We will not allow them to take political mileage from this issue,” he added.
HYC president Robertjune Kharjahrin said the state government should neither allocate land nor help the 342 families construct their houses.
He insisted that only the government employees should be relocated to the quarters to be allocated to them. “They should be made to vacate the quarters once they retire,” he said.
Kharjahrin said the people living illegally in Harijan Colony should be evicted. The government will set the wrong precedence if it allots land and constructs houses for them.
HPC secretary Gurjit Singh had earlier said: “Each family or landholder wants a 200 sq. metre plot and the government has to bear the expenditure so that the families can construct their houses.”
He said the government had offered them apartments in a multi-storey building, which they have refused.
A majority of 342 families are government employees. Some have their own businesses established over the years.
