DEHRADUN: In a bid to get their demands fulfilled of achieving revenue village status for 55 khedas of
Jaunsar Bawar, four Dalits who had been on a hunger strike since the past seven days in
Kalsi near
Vikas Nagar were forcibly brought by police and district administration to Doon hospital in order to end their protest on Sunday.
However, Dalit leaders said that they are not going to relent and are now continuing their strike at Parade ground in Dehradun.
They threatened to strengthen their revolution further by burning effigy of chief minister
Hairsh Rawat if their demands are not met within 48 hours.
They are also planning to involve women and children of their community if the state government continued to ignore their demands. Nainu Singh from Kaletha village said, “We will sit here until our demands are met, we have had daunting past but now we are not ready to continue with those atrocities in future. This protest is about our genuine demands.”
Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Kalsi, Pratyush Singh, said, “We have given their memorandum to higher officials, as and when we receive anything from the state government we will implicate it.”
Meanwhile, the agitated protesters said they will ensure that if their demands are not met the Dalit community does not participate in the upcoming state assembly elections.
On October 11, Dalit leader Daulat Kunwar along with his team members started ‘Kheda Bachao Andolan’ under which they went to different khedas to apprise people about their rights and upcoming elections. The aandolan concluded on October 30 thereafter they started a protest followed by hunger strike from past seven days.
Despite having got the status of tribal region by the government of India in 1966, 55 villages of Jaunsar Bawar are being deprived of the benefits. These benefits include national overseas scholarship scheme for Scheduled Tribes, schemes of strengthening education among ST girls, institutional support for development and marketing of tribal products etc.