lucknow

Updated: Oct 16, 2017 13:02 IST

It will be a Diwali with a difference for the socially marginalised Vantangiyas, a community of forest-dwllers, this year as their villages will get the status of revenue villages, making them eligible for the government facilities that they never got in past.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath will announce the revenue village status for 23 hamlets of Vantangiyas while celebrating the festival of lights with them, officials confirmed. He is with them on Diwali every year.

Eighteen of these villages are in Maharajganj and five in Gorakhpur.

He is also set to announce that over 700 pucca houses and toilets will be constructed under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna for the homeless community.

Primary and secondary schools for children will also be set up in these villages.

Once revenue villages are declared, the Vantangiyas will be covered by government-run pension schemes and the public distribution system for grains among others.

As their hamlets did not have the status of revenue villages so far, the Vantangiyas remained without basic facilities, including power, education, toilets, transport and hospitals. They didn’t even have voting rights until recently.

Adityanath shares a strong bond with the community. As the Gorakhpur MP, he raised their issues in parliament often.

Like every year, he is scheduled to celebrate the festival with them on October 19. The chief minister is expected to be in Gorakhpur most of the time from October 16 to 19. He is, however, likely to visit Ayodhya on October 18 for celebrations on the Diwali eve.

Ran Vijay Singh, gram pradhan (village head) of Tinkoniya, said: “District magistrate Rajeev Rautela visited the villages. He told us that all necessary documents required to declare the villages as revenue villages have been sent to government. The chief minister will arrive here to celebrate Diwali with Vantangiyas on October 19. He will then make this announcement about the revenue villages.”

Though Rautela was not available for comment , a senior official confirmed the development .

WHO ARE VANTANGIYAS?

The Vantangiyas are a socially marginalised community. They have been living in the forests around Gorakhpur and Maharanjganj since 1918. Their forefather were shifted to these forests by the British who engaged them in cultivating trees to meet the demand for wood, especially for laying railway tracks.

In 2006 , after the then MP Yogi Adityanath repatedly demanded an improvement in their condition, the state government brought an Act concerning the rights of tribals, including Vantangiyas .But the Act was not implemented, allegedly due to government apathy .

For long, land ownership has been denied to Vantangiyas.