GUWAHATI: The Meghalaya government is inching closer to settling a long-standing dispute with the Sikh settlers of Shillong.
The government wants to redevelop Harijan Colony, also called Punjabi Lane which is a prime location of the hill station, by relocating 342 Sikh families.
Responding to their demand, it handed them the relocation blueprint on Friday. The Sikhs will examine it before taking any decision. If they accept the offer, the families will be relocated to the quarters of the Shillong Municipal Board on Bishop Cotton Road.
The Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) confirmed the receipt of the blueprint. The committee secretary Gurjit Singh said it would consult engineers and architects to understand the blueprint in detail.
“Once we have a fair idea about it, the committee will convene a meeting with the residents and take a decision,” he said.
The handing over of the blueprint followed the HPC’s three rounds of meetings with the government-constituted High-Level Committee (HLC).
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The government plans to construct flats or units on a plot measuring 2.5 acres to accommodate the Sikhs who claim their forefathers migrated to Shillong 200 years ago. The state government had taken possession of the land of Harijan Colony, measuring 12,444.13 square metres, last year after paying a premium of over Rs 2 crore to the Syiem (king) of Mylliem, the original owner of the land.
The government plans to convert the area into a parking lot or use it to build a shopping complex.
“Nobody should think we are throwing them out. We want to relocate them to a proper place,” Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong, who heads the HLC, had once said.
The HPC secretary Singh said the Sikhs of Shillong were emotionally attached to the colony where their forefathers lived and died and never thought of returning to Punjab due to the love of people.
Earlier, as the standoff continued, the Sikhs had told the government in no uncertain terms they would die but not leave the colony.