Sikh panel meets hill council head to resolve land dispute
CHANDIGARH/SHILLONG: The fourmember Punjab delegation led by cooperation minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Tuesday met Hima Mylliem, the Syiem of Mylliem (chief of hill districts’ council), for resolution of the disputed land case which was at the centre of the current trouble in Shillong.
The case is pending with Syiem of Mylliem, said Randhawa, adding that he and other team members, including MPS Ravneet Bittu and Gurjeet Singh Aujla, impressed upon the Syiem to expedite the matter in order to defuse the prevailing tension.
Meanwhile, life was limping back to normalcy in Meghalaya’s capital with no fresh clashes reported even as authorities re-imposed curfew in the entire city this evening as a precautionary measure. The hill town has been in the grip of violence since Thursday following a clash between Sikhs in Shillong’s Punjabi Lane area and the Khasi drivers of state-run buses. Punjabis were brought here 200 years ago by the British to work.
A five-member delegation of the United Sikh Organisation (USO) on Tuesday said any proposal of shifting the people of Punjabi Colony from Them Metor at Bara Bazaar was not acceptable. After the meeting with state home minister, USO member Mohinderjit Singh said the Sikh population has never been asked to leave even from Afghanistan or Pakistan.