Shillong, Oct 15: The Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC) has claimed that the State government is prejudiced against them and is sort of discarding them as their services of manual scavenging are no longer required, and the claim for relocating them from Them Iew Mawlong to proper SMB quarters is a complete eyewash.

The Committee also asserted that they are fighting for their right, and what the state government is doing was completely wrong as there is already a order for maintaining status quo from the Court and the case is pending in Supreme Court of India.

Questioning the eagerness of the government to evict them and also clarifying their stand, HPC Secretary Gurjit Singh said, “We have been here for around 200 years… all these years they never asked us to relocate. Now, they know that they don’t need our services of night scavenging since the present work can be done by anyone… so they want to remove us.”

Citing their relentless hard work over the years irrespective of the situation, he said, “Earlier, whenever there was law and order breakdown in Shillong, we were given curfew passes, even now we have curfew passes.”

He added that ever since the work of manual scavenging at night was no longer required, there has been consistent attempt to remove them.

Accommodation at SMB quarters a farce

At the same time, Singh questioned on accommodating the residents of the colony at SMB quarters at Bishop Cotton road. He wondered how the government will accommodate odd 300 hundred families in just odd 20 quarters.

He said the SMB quarters were made long time back and they were not allocated to SMB employees then. Presently, all the quarters are occupied by staff of different departments. Even if they are shifted elsewhere, there are only about 20 units.

Calling the government’s assurance to relocate them at SMB quarters as ‘completely misleading’ he questioned, “There are about only 20 quarters, but there are 300 families. So how will you accommodate 300 families in 20 quarters?”

Further adding to the problems that come with relocating, he said, “Imagine if any Khasi from here goes to Delhi, Punjab or UP, and stay there… but when the summer comes, can they stay there? Our kids have been staying here for generations, if you suddenly remove them, they won’t be able to stay in any other state. Also, all the families here don’t have a house outside of this place or any other State. Once our services, which could be 5 or 10 years, are over… we’ll be asked to vacate the government quarters… then where will we go.”

“Imagine, a local from village is brought to the city and he stays there for 200 years, and after 200 years you tell him to go back… is it right?” further asked Singh.

Government’s intentions wrong

At the same time, he also questioned why state government wants only the area housing the Harijan Colony, which is a small piece of land.

He recalled that in 1990s, when Shillong was boiling in ethnic riots but night scavenging was still practised, 866 of the residents were employed in Municipal alone and they went about doing their job irrespective of the law and order situation. Today, that number has come down to 150-200.

Singh said most of the employees of their community have been pushed out of the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) to make way for the locals, and getting a fresh appointment is near impossible.

“We have been removed from our profession, now they are after our land…”rued Singh.

“See, if a farmer’s son becomes IAS officer, does it mean that the government will ask the farmer to return the land or house and give it to someone else just because his son has joined another profession… it’s wrong,” he remarked.