Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service
Kolkata, August 30
Deadline set by the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) for submission of property documents by the Dalit Sikhs of Harijan Colony (aka Punjabi Lane) expired today with the residents remaining unresponsive to the SMB’s diktat.
“We have filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Meghalaya High Court’s directive asking us to furnish information to the state government to establish our claim. The top court asked the Meghalaya Government to respond by September 20 to the petition filed by us, Shillong Harijan Colony Panchayat Committee chief Gurjit Singh, who is also the petitioner in this case, told this reporter over the phone from Shillong.
On July 23, the SMB gave a notice asking residents to provide by August 30 the details about their residence in the locality. The prescribed format included a column for information about the “period of stay” which was to be backed by “document of proof in support”. This was preceded by a similar notice by the SMB on May 31, asking the residents to prove by July 3 their ownership of the land or building. Residents of Harijan Colony did not comply with the May 31 notice, prompting the SMB to issue a fresh notice on July 23.
According to the residents, the area was given to their ancestors by the then local tribal chief over 150 years ago. Individual ownership of the plots is hard to establish because the land was allotted to the community that first came with the British colonialists to work as sweepers.
“We have moved applications under the RTI Act to provide us with employment records of our forefathers so that we can prove the duration of the families’ residence in the area. But the details about their employment are not being made available by the SMB,” Gurjit Singh says.
The National Commission of Safai Karmacharis also recently wrote to Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma to redress grievance of the residents of Harijan Colony. The commission asked the government to allot the land in the names of the residents in accordance with the Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
The state government, however, maintains the purpose of the two recent SMB notices was not eviction, but to make an inventory of people staying in the colony. The residents, however, fear that the next step of the government will be to evict them.
‘Sought job records of forefathers’
We have moved applications under the RTI Act to provide us with job records of our forefathers so that we can prove the duration of the families’ residence in the area. But the details about their employment are not being made available by the SMB. Gurjit Singh, punjabi lane resident
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