Shillong, Sept 27: The high level committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong has asked the law department to do proper homework before submitting the affidavit to the Supreme Court in connection with the special leave petition filed by the Harijan Panchayat Committee (HPC).

The HPC is opposing the move to relocate settlers from Them ïew Mawlong and filed a special leave petition in Supreme Court challenging the order passed by the Meghalaya High Court on June 28, which directed all residents of the area to cooperate with the government’s inventorisation exercise by furnishing all requisite information to the Shillong Municipal Board.

The last date for submitting of the documents was August 30. However, the residents have refused to pay heed to the notices served by the board, according to a report submitted before the high level committee during its eighth sitting held on Friday.

Tynsong was also reluctant to disclose the outcome of the meeting citing that the matter is subjudice.

He however said that the government is preparing its reply to be submitted in the form of an affidavit before the Supreme Court on the special leave petition filed by the HPC, within 10-12 days.

“Instruction have been given to the commissioner & secretary of law department and the advocate general that they should do their homework to ensure our case is presented well (before the apex court),” Tynsong said.

Asked, the deputy chief minister said no one turn up for the inventorisation programme by the Shillong municipal board despite the deadline was extended to August 30.

The objective of the inventorisation was to collect information on the number of persons residing in the area and also their duration of stay to prepare both long term and short term policy for resolving long pending issue pertaining to the Sweeper’s Colony.

Maintaining that action will continue, he said, “The sitting of the high level committee will continue as I already mentioned from day one that we will take up this issue as a top most priority programme of the government.”

“The high level committee is ready to sit till we are able to compile a comprehensive report for recommending (a permanent solution) to the state government,” Tynsong added.

Asked if the government will again go for re-inventorisation, the chairman of the committee however said the matter will be looked into in the next meeting which will take place after 25 days.

Earlier, the committee has directed the Shillong Municipal Board to shift its temporary office from the staff quarters for accommodating its employees who are presently residing at the Sweeper’s Colony.

On the status of this proposal, Tynsong informed that the shifting of the board’s temporary office to the General Administration Department’s quarters where the MBDA office was functioning earlier, will take place very soon.

“Right now, we are waiting for the allotment order from the GAD and once this is done, the board has been asked to go for renovation and only after that shifting to the new allotted place will take place,” Tynsong said.