Shillong, Oct 24: The residents of Harijan Colony are gripped by uncertainty, a sense of rejection and fear about their future as their eviction from the area has once again gained currency. As per sources, the youths of Harijan Colony in Shillong feel that the State Government has insulted the Constitution of India after it announced that they would take possession of the land at Harijan Colony and they also feel unsafe and feel like outsiders in their own country where their ancestors have spent more than two centuries.

Talking to Newsmen, Rohit Singh a youth from Harijan Colony said that it has become a very fearful situation as an uneasy calm and a feeling of uncertainty has gripped the area.

“When our people go out of the locality some people view them with hatred in their eyes which is very depressing. We have all the necessary documents like the high court order which they (the Government) are not honouring and this is an abuse of power and insult to the Constitution of India’’ said Rohit Singh.

Talking about the constitution, he said a citizen of this country is free to reside anywhere in this country and removing or even trying to remove them forcibly amounts to violation of it.

Another youth, Jovan Jeet Singh, said, “This is mental torment. We have been suffering like this for a longtime and now there are more restrictions being imposed even on our vehicular movements.”

“As a resident of Shillong we have been living here for more than two centuries now. Generation after Generation we have lived here and the Government must recognise that and least give us our due. In countries like Canada if someone is residing there for more than six-seven years they are given residency by the Government there so why not here in a place where we have been born and brought up for generations now, we are not getting our rights as an Indian Citizen,” said Jovan Jeet.

Meanwhile speaking to General Secretary of the Harijan Panchayat committee, Gurjit Singh said he has written a letter to the East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner seeking no action or intervention by any quarters in the matter of relocation of the residents of the Harijan Colony in Shillong citing that the matter is subjudice.

He had also requested for more security to be provided to the residents of the Harijan Colony. Gurjit stressed that the matter is in court and should be dealt with as per the law and anything beyond the court initiated by the State government is a violation of the court, their rights and the constitution.

Notably, the recent comment made by State Planning Board (SPB) Chairman, Lambor Malngiang who urged Chief Minister Conrad Sangma not to allow people from outside to meddle with the decision of the state government to relocate the settlers of the Harijan Colony at Them Iew Mawlong further calling them ” Nosy outsiders”.

Singh said that this is an insult to the religious body when a pope or archbishop can come to and hold processions here the same should also be allowed for our community bodies which is recognised by the Indian constitution as well .

Calling the recommendations flawed he said that there was no attempts whatsoever by the HLC to talk to us the stakeholders or corroborate the documents which we have of the colony.

He also added that the Government has not come out either with the documents of the recommendations or the tripartite agreement in the public forum.

Singh further invited the Government, NGOs and Pressure groups to come and talk to them about the status of the ownership of the land and check all the documents that they have.

It may be mentioned that following the decision of the State Government to relocate the residents of the Harijan Colony and transfer of ownership of land to the state after a tripartite agreement between three parties (SMB, Syiem of Hima Mylliem and Department of Urban affairs ) after the recommendations of a high-level committee constituted for the relocation of the Harijan Colony , the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) had recently issued a notice to the Meghalaya government seeking action taken report.