SHILLONG, Meghalaya—The SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal has strongly criticized the Shillong Municipal Board’s move of serving notices to the residents of the Punjabi lane area. He has said that the Punjabis, especially the Sikhs, living in the Punjabi lane area of Shillong are being persecuted deliberately.
Longowal has said that the Meghalaya state government’s bid to usurp land of the Punjabis living in the Punjabi lane area manifests an oppressive intention which has made them feel alienated in Meghalaya.
He recalled that the SGPC had approached the Meghalaya state government and the Union government of India when the Punjabis were attacked by the locals in Shillong in May last year.
Appealing the Meghalaya state government not to persecute the Punjabis living in Shillong, Longowal has demanded that the residents of the Punjabi lane area should be given proprietorship rights of their properties without any delay as they have been living there for the last two centuries.
It may be recalled here that the Shillong Municipal Board had served notices to the residents of the Punjabi lane area asking them to produce documents proving their legal right over the respective properties, they own in concerned area.
