Showing posts with label Meghalaya panel #elocation of Shillong Sikhs #. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meghalaya panel #elocation of Shillong Sikhs #. Show all posts

Saturday, August 29, 2020

Matter of Relocation of Shillong Sikhs

            Meghalaya government’s latest attempt to evict Dalit Sikhs from Harijan Colony located at the heart of state capital Shillong is all set to gain fresh momentum when a sub-committee headed by urban affairs minister Hamletson Dohling will submit its report to the High-Level committee formed by the state government to suggest measures for relocating the Sikh residents of the area.

     Relocation of Shillong Sikhs: SC notice to Meghalaya govt

The issue has raised heckles in Punjab with the Congress-led state government sending a delegation to Shillong last year under minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa to take up the matter with Meghalaya authorities. The Punjab government step was preceded by a visit to Shillong by a SGPC team from Amritsar who met Meghalaya Home Minister James Sangma and urged him to stop the attempts being made to “relocate” the Sikh residents of Harijan Colony.

India - The dilemmas of Shillong's Dalit Punjabis - Kractivism

According to Gurjit Singh, chief of Harijan Panchayat Committee and a spokesman of the Dalit Sikhs of Shillong’s Harijan Colony, the land in question was granted to a group of people (ancestors of the current residents) by the then tribal chief of the area more than 150 years back. Disregarding the history of the settlement, the Shillong Municipal Board and other official agencies are now asking for proof of individual ownership of the plots and ramshackle structures used by the Dalit Sikhs as residences.

So far the courts have always upheld the Sikhs’ right over the area.

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The ancestors of Dalit Sikhs living in the colony had come primarily from Gurdaspur area of Punjab.

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/meghalaya-panel-for-relocation-of-shillong-sikhs-to-submit-report-on-friday-132242?

Dr. Gurdeep Kaur
Associate Professor
Sri Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College
University of Delhi