GUWAHATI: Assam Governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi has intervened in the protection of some heritage socio-cultural, academic and religious institutions of the Assamese in Meghalaya capital Shillong.
He constituted a three-member committee with the director of Cultural Affairs Department as its chairman and the deputy resident commissioner, Assam House, Shillong and a representative from the Revenue and Disaster Management Department as members.
“The Governor of Assam is pleased to constitute a committee to take up the matter regarding ownership of land with the government of Meghalaya on which Assamese institutions are set up with immediate effect,” a notification dated July 25 and issued by Laya Madduri, who is the secretary, Cultural Affairs Department, said.
The committee has been assigned to visit the institutions to assess the current state of affairs, take up the matter with the Meghalaya government, hold talks with different organisations running them and submit a detailed report.
One of these institutions – Shrimanta Sankardev Cultural Cetnre – had written to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in June this year seeking his help after suspecting a threat to its land from influential locals, including politicians. This newspaper had broken the news.
Assam Club, Assam Cultural Centre, Laban Namghar etc are the other institutions.
A Meghalaya minister had proposed to develop the Cultural Centre and the Assam Club. He said a multi-storey building each, with a shopping complex, parking space, community hall etc, would be built at the two properties. However, the Assamese settlers suspected that they might end up slowly losing the properties.
In its letter to the Assam CM, the Cultural Centre had said the “limited” Assamese living in Shillong was finding it tough to manage the institutions. It further said the community was worried about the future of the institutions due to the lack of support from the Meghalaya government and its policy.
“The Assamese had set up these institutions after a lot of efforts but they are now in grave danger…We solicit your support for their safety, preservation and development,” the letter to Sarma read.
Subsequently, a three-member team from Assam, led by Sudarshan Thakur, who is the secretary of Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra, Guwahati, visited Shillong and conducted a spot verification, purportedly at the Assam CM’s direction.
The Assamese population in Shillong is estimated to be around 5,000, including permanent settlers. Meghalaya was carved out of Assam to be created as a state in 1972. Until then, Shillong was the Assam capital.