Shillong’s Sikh community protest against relocation survey

AMRITSAR

: The Sikh residents of Punjabi Lane, the epicentre of recent race riots in

Shillong

on Wednesday protested against the

Meghalaya

government’s relocation survey.

The Conrad Sangma government on June 4 had announced setting up of a high-level committee to settle the land dispute. Violence had erupted in Shillong on May 31 after an altercation between a few women from Punjabi Lane area and a city bus driver and conductor spiralled out of control. Rumours circulated on social media also fuelled mob fury.

Concerned about security threat to Sikhs in Shillong, the Amarinder Singh government had sent a four-member team headed by Cabinet minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa to Shillong. The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), led by its president Manjit Singh GK, and the SGPC too sent separate delegations to Shillong.

However, there seems to be no resolution in sight to the land dispute between Sikh residents of Punjabi Lane and the locals. After the riots, they had vowed to defend their land, saying it was not the first time that their claim to the land had been disputed.

The 350-odd Sikh families living at Iewduh (Punjabi Lane) are worried the government will evict them from land where they have been living for almost two centuries. The land, they claim, was donated by a Khasi tribal chieftain to them before 1863.

After the protest, Gurjit Singh, general secretary of Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbar in Shillong told TOI, “We vehemently oppose the survey since relocation is not acceptable to us.”

“They initially intervened, but didn’t do any follow-up action,” Gurjit Singh said about the delegations from Punjab and New Delhi.

Sangma had announced setting up of a joint peace committee and another committee to find an amicable solution to the land dispute between two communities. The peace committee, however, was not constituted.

Billu Singh, headman, Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) said they had rejected the terms of high-level committee constituted by the chief minister. The committee represents the stakeholders of Punjabi Lane locality.

“We welcome the chief minister’s efforts to find a solution to the issues faced by the stakeholders of Punjabi Lane, but the panchayat, City Gurdwara Management Committee, and stakeholders of Punjabi Lane do not accept the relocation of the Punjabi Lane as a term of reference of the committee,” he said.

Supporting his stance, Gurjit Singh said: “We unequivocally state that all the stakeholders of the Punjabi Lane do not agree to any relocation. We request the Meghalaya government to draw up a plan to develop Punjabi Lane that accommodates the rights and needs of all the stakeholders.”

He claimed that on several occasions in the past the stakeholders of Punjabi Lane had won cases in the high court against the Meghalaya government’s moves to evict or interfere with the rights of the Punjabi Lane residents.

He also said that Ricky Nelson, Syiem (chief) of Hima Mylliem had visited the area on June 18.