Minorities commission monitoring Shillong’s Punjabi Colony issue

MOHALI : National Commission for Minorities (NCM) member Manjit Singh Rai has said that the commission was monitoring the status of the Punjabi Colony in Shillong, the capital of the northeastern state of Meghalaya. Rai, who was in town to review government schemes for minorities in Mohali, said.

“The commission is monitoring the situation. The state has assured us that it will look for a solution. The main issue is that the land where the colony was established does not belong to the state,” he added.

He added that the commission would protest the interest of minorities and ‘so far, the Punjabi Colony would not be displaced’.

He asked officials of different departments to make efforts to implement all centrally-sponsored schemes so that genuine people benefit. Rai also asked district education officers to ensure that the benefits of scholarship schemes belonging to minority communities reached students on time. He also asked for promotion of self-employment schemes.

“We should focus on building self-help groups so that members start their own business by getting financial help from banks,” he added.

The minority commission also reviewed the urban and rural housing scheme and asked authorities concerned to provide timely grant for permanent houses to beneficiaries, from minority communities. Deputy commissioner Gurpreet Kaur Sapra assured timely completion and effective implementation of schemes to benefit minorities.