The Minister-in-charge of Urban Affairs – Sniawbhalang Dhar, noted that the state government is waiting for the response of the Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) regarding the state government’s proposal to relocate the 342 families of Sweeper’s Colony from Them Iew Mawlong.
Addressing the media persons on Wednesday, Dhar stated that the state administration provided one-month time to the committee for responding to the concerned proposal.
“We can have a meeting once they are ready to discuss the relocation blueprint,” – he added.
It is worth noting that the Meghalaya High Court recently directed the HPC to respond to the state government’s proposal for the relocation of 342 families of Harijan Colony from Them Iew Mawlong within one month.
A division bench of the HC, while hearing the matter, informed that the state government forwarded the relocation blueprint to the HPC under cover of a letter dated September 30.
“Since the respondent committee says that it is assessing the proposal, the respondents are requested to respond to the proposal within the next four weeks. Let the matter appear two months hence,” the bench said. The next hearing will take place on February 16.
On September 29, the state government delivered a presentation of the blueprint, indicating the detailed drawings and designs of the multi-storey buildings designed for relocating 342 families of Sweepers’ Colony from Them Iew Mawlong, before the Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC).
Earlier, the HPC Secretary – Gurjit Singh expressed concern that the government had rejected its 8-point resolution.
“The government has instead come up with its blueprint. Therefore, we will first study the blueprint, we will go back to the people of our community to discuss and take a collective decision, then we will come back to the government,” he said.
“In our resolution, we had demanded 200 square meters of land for each of the 342 families, but now the government is saying that it will construct multi-storey flats. However, I cannot decide alone on this, that is why collective decisions will be taken by the community,” – he added.
