SHILLONG, Nov 2: Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Wednesday said the 342 families of Sweepers’ Colony are not ‘illegal settlers’.

“You can’t say that they (342 families) are illegal settlers,” Tynsong told reporters while reacting to allegations made by the pressure groups.

“The question of illegal settlers does not arise as the details and records of all the 342 families are already there in the office of the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) and also with the Meghalaya High Court,” he said.

On the proposal of the government to relocate them to the existing quarters of the SMB, Tynsong said the Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) is yet to communicate its decision on the matter adding however, the High Court has already asked them to file affidavit on this regard within few weeks’ from now.

On October 21, the Meghalaya High Court had asked the HPC to respond to the proposal of the state government within four weeks’ time.

While hearing the matter, the Division Bench had said the state has informed that a proposal, along with the blueprint for the reallocation, has been forwarded 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 had said.

The next hearing is scheduled to be held on February 16.

On September 29, the state government presented the blueprint to the HPC during a meeting, which indicated its decision to construct multi-storey flats at the existing official quarters of the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) for relocation of the 342 families.

The state government had outrightly rejected the April 25-proposal of the HPC that 200 square meters of land be provided to each of the 342 families within the European ward besides bearing the cost of construction of their homes.

After the meeting, HPC secretary Gurjit Singh had expressed concern that the government had rejected its 8-points resolution.

“The government has instead come up with its own 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 had said.