New Delhi: The controversy around the eviction of a colony of Sikh residents from Shillong’s Them Lew Mawlong (or Punjabi Lane), situated next to the city’s commercial hub Bara Bazar (Lewduh), has surfaced once again this week after the Meghalaya government announced the decision to relocate them from the area on October 7.

The cabinet decision for relocation was taken by the NPP-BJP-UDF coalition government based on a recommendation made in a report on October 4 by a high-level committee headed by deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong.

The committee was set up by the Conrad Sangma-led government in June 2018 to arrive at a solution to the decades-old issue regarding the relocation of the residents after violent clashes between a section of the Khasi and Sikh residents of the area erupted in May that year, making national headlines.

News reports have said that as per the cabinet decision, the state urban affairs department would take possession of the 2.5-acre area from the syeim (chief) of the Hima Mylliem area within a week’s time.

While the stand of the government authorities has been that the land belongs to the urban affairs department, the Sikh residents, predominantly from the Dalit community, have claimed that they were “gifted” the land by the syeim of the area after they were brought in by the British in the 19th century to Shillong, then the capital of the Assam Province, as sweepers.

Following the cabinet decision, the representatives of the Sikh community held a protest, following which the deputy chief minister Tynsong said, “We are following due diligence. It is not a question of throwing out the Sikh community from the area. Our aim is to relocate them to a proper place…they are people of Meghalaya and we are here to help them,”

He said, “While several of them work at the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB), there are many settlers as well and we do not know where they came from. We request them (residents) to help us make an inventory, and come forward and declare their details such as name and occupation.”

The Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) head Gurjit Singh, however, told Indian Express that while 300-odd Sikh families live in the lane, only 20 of them are employed with the SMB, whom the government is willing to relocate. “The remainder, according to the government, are unauthorised,” Singh said. He called the government’s stand “baseless” and “completely unjust”.

In 2018, the HPC had filed a suit in the Meghalaya high court. The court, in April 2020, had put a stay on the matter. The new report, quoting Singh, said, “We fail to understand why the government is in such a hurry when a status quo has been ordered recently.”

Meanwhile, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), has sent a notice to the state government on October 4, seeking a report on the matter.

A day before, Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa had told mediapersons that he would take up the matter with Union home minister Amit Shah. According to a report by news agency PTI, Randhawa said, “The main aim of the Meghalaya government is to get the prime land worth several crores vacated by hook or crook and hand it over to land mafia.” In 2018, following the violent incidents, Randhawa had led a delegation to the state.

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