SHILLONG, June 19 - A seven-member delegation of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) arrived here today and met Deputy Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Prestone Tynsong.
The members of the delegation observed that the State Government should make efforts to rehabilitate the Sikhs at their present location in Punjabi lane instead of relocating them. The State Government has constituted a high-level committee to look into issue of relocation of the residents of the area.
Disagreeing to the suggestions put forwarded by the high-level committee, Paramjit Singh Sarna, president of SAD, Delhi, said that the committee should look into rehabilitation of the residents of the area at their present location by uplifting their living conditions.
�The committee should be focusing on rehabilitation of the residents,� Sarna said.
He said that the Dalit Sikhs have been residing in the Punjabi lane for the past 200 years. Sarna added that if the Government wants to develop this area they would have no problem. �Some people want to take over this place and build a commercial complex which is not acceptable,� he stated.
The Akali Dal leader said under the Centre�s affordable housing policy, better houses should be made for the people living below the poverty line in the area. Sarna said that Central assistance for the housing policy should not be a problem.
