HPC seek NCSK’s intervention into move to evict safai karamcharis from Sweepers’ Colony

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaDecember 17, 2021

The Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) on Thursday sought the intervention of the Chairman of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis M Venkatesan into the state government’s move to relocate the residents of Sweeper’s Colony at Them Iew Mawlong.

“We urge you to take effective steps at the highest level to protect us and our habitat. We urge you to call a full meeting of the Commission to discuss this issue at length and save our humble habitat,” HPC secretary Gurjit Singh said in a letter submitted to Venkatesan during his visit to the state capital.

He said when manual scavenging was declared illegal, the profession was taken away from the Sikh community.

According to him, the present count of employees doing work as Safai Karamcharis is down to around 128.

Of these only 16 are permanent employees and the rest have been categorized as contractual employees so that the government is not liable to them for any facility, concessions and dues of a permanent employee.

These “contractual employees” have been in service for 10-30 years. Despite this, they are not being made permanent employees.

Singh further alleged the government for attempting to evict all residents of Sweepers’ Colony.

“On the one hand, we are being forcibly removed from jobs and on the other, conspiratorial attempts are being made to deprive us of our home and hearth by taking away land which was given by the ruler of this place to our forefathers, nearly 200 years ago.

We have written evidence that prior to 1854, the King had allocated this space to our community, plus there are many court orders confirming this, still, the government has decided to take away our homes, places of worship and our educational institution,” he said.

“We have been contesting for our rights for the last two decades, yet so far, we continue to live in fear and have failed to convince them of our rightful and legitimate claims. We have knocked on the doors of the state and central government and all its institutions on multiple occasions, but the government of Meghalaya is unrelenting even in the face of court orders to the contrary,” he added.

Stating that there is a clear order of status quo by the High Court of Meghalaya at Shillong dated 9 April 2021, Singh said similarly, in an order dated 15 February 2019, Justice Sen of the Meghalaya High Court of Shillong had clarified that the title deed of the Punjabi Colony has to be settled by filing a title suit and not through any unilateral decision of the Meghalaya government.

There are around 300 families living in this place working in various state and central government offices, quasi-government offices as well as some in private jobs.

“We are living here for generations, yet we are being labeled as illegal settlers,” he said while adding all government documentation -mention in voters lists, Aadhar cards, electricity meters, etc are available for each and every resident.

Claiming that the Gurdwara Sahib here is nearly 150 years old, the HPC leader said it appears that the government is now in full readiness to forcibly evict us from our homes.

“We are living for 200 years and therefore we have full rights over this land. To rub salt on our wounds, the government calls all of us illegal settlers as well as brings up the bogey of it being a slum and takes the high ground of “taking care of their health it is necessary to shift them.”

How pernicious is their game plan can be understood from the fact that only those 16 employees who are permanent employees, will get alternative accommodation, whereas the rest are all illegal and will be evicted from this place.

We have no hesitation in saying that this is a conspiracy against us as the market price of this place has become phenomenally high due to the passage of time and it now being a central part of the time, the state government of Meghalaya is using all means and excuses to evict us.”

The HPC secretary also requested the Chairman to take this issue of non-relocation on a priority basis so that “the poorest of poor people residing in this colony for more than 200 years are not forcibly evicted by the Meghalaya government.”