Devoid of basic facilities, 24 Nainital villages to boycott Uttarakhand polls

NAINITAL: Over 16,000 people living in 24 villages of Nainital district have in unison decided to boycott the upcoming Uttarakhand polls. The villagers feel that the polls are the right time to highlight their woes, as it is during this period that the politicians “wake up” from the “slumber” and come asking for votes.
Even after 70 years of Independence, these villages are still deprived of basic amenities such as ration card, health and education centres, roads, electricity, water, MNREGA and old age pension scheme.
The authorities say that the government facilities could not reach these villages as they are ‘van gram’ and not ‘revenue village’.
The people of these hamlets, which were given the status of ‘van gram’ during 1950s, are seeking the ‘revenue village’ grade for decades and have also held several protests to attract the government’s attention but to no avail.
Ironically, these people were given the voting rights by the state government. They have the power to elect members of state assembly as well as Lok Sabha. But, they cannot vote for village head election as there is no provision for panchayati raj in these villages, which are spread across the Terai region.
S Lal, president of Van Gram Association, said: “We have voting rights in state assembly elections as well as general elections, but we cannot elect our own gram pradhan. We are also excluded from various state and national schemes of development including MNREGA. It is only during the election season that politicians wake up from slumber and come to villages for votes. All we want is the status of ‘revenue village’ so that we can lead a normal life.”
The history of these ‘van grams’ go back to 1950s and 60s, when nomadic communities were encouraged to take part in plantation drive started by the government and settle at one place.
Parag Madhukar Dhakate, conservator of forests, told TOI: “These communities got settled in Terai region - in forests of Haldwani, Haridwar, Dehradun and Nainital. We are considering their demands.”
The people of these villages do not even have the right to build houses. There are no electricity or water connections in the ‘van grams’ spread across the state. “Government officials ask for bribes even for picking up dry grass from forests to thatch our huts,” Lal alleged.
“We have not been inducted into the mainstream and the panchayati raj is a distant dream for us even after almost 70 years of independence,” he alleged.
Many protests have been organised by the villagers, including a big rally in Haldwani in 2011, which was followed by promises by the then chief minister.
Known as Taungyas, forefathers of these people were hired by the forest department to plant trees in degraded forests of Uttar Pradesh during the British rule. In 2011, UP granted land titles to Taungyas.