HYC demands Govt to relocate SMB employees, evict illegal settlers as per law

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaApril 26, 2022

The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) on Tuesday demanded the state government to relocate the government employees and evict “illegal settlers” from Them Iew Mawlong as per law.

“We demand eviction and relocation. Eviction is for illegal immigrants and relocation for Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) employees. We want eviction and relocation without conditions otherwise this will create a very bad precedent in the state,” HYC president Robertjune Kharjahrin told reporters.

This came a day after the Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) on behalf of the residents of the Sweepers’ Colony agreed to be relocated from Them Iew Mawlong on conditions that the state government should provide 10 acres of land in exchange besides constructing homes for them.

Kharjahrin however warned, “If you (government) agree to their terms and conditions, it’s like opening a Pandora’s box and people will start demanding land for free, not only land even houses for free, so are we in the position to do it.”   

He said moreover the land does not belong to them. “In fact they had gone to the court asking the court to direct the Syiem of Mylliem to issue patas to them. If they are the land owner then why should they need a pata. When they build that school and gurudwra, they had also asked for NOC why, simply the fact that they are not the land owners, if they are land owners, where is the land occupy by SMB, where has the SMB land disappeared, show us the facts,” he added.

Kharjahrin further said that the government should come up with a policy to give free land to the people if it agrees to the terms and conditions of the HPC.

“If you want to adopt this as a policy to give free land to people, let us adopt it as a policy and not just these people will benefit but the indigenous people should benefit first. The policy should be implemented to all the residents of Meghalaya and the first priority should be the indigenous people of the state,”  he said while  adding that there are lots of indigenous people who are landless in Meghalaya.