A large number of the people from the Van Gujjar community have gathered at Gandikhata village in Haridwar district on Thursday to participate in the ‘Van Gurjar Samasya evam Samadhan Sammelan’ being held at Gurjar basti. They said that they have congregated here from across the State to demand the Government to allow them to live with their rights and dignity. 

“The Van Gujjar people have come here from across Uttrakhand to participate in the congregation meant to highlight the community’s aspiration to live with their rights and dignity. Some have come from far-off Almora. They have taken the pains to come because the cause is dear to us all,” said the national president and the convenor of Akhand Bharat Gujar Mahasabha Colonel (retired) Dev Anand Gurjar.

Speaking of the problems the community has been facing, he said that the basic human rights of the community were being violated by the forest officials. “The representatives of the community would meet the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in a week and in course of the meeting, we would apprise him of our grievances.

We hope he would hear us out and would understand our plight in the hands of the insensitive administrative and forest officials. The community members are now being forced to leave the places they have been living for decades.

They are being rehabilitated in areas where there is not even drinking water facility. We are demanding justice which has been eluding us for years,” said Dev Anand Gurjar.

He further informed that Gujjar Gaurav Yatra-meant to foster brotherhood among the people of the three countries who were once parts of undivided Bharat-which had started from Dwarhat  Gujjar temple in Almora on  October 31 would reach  Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh soon.

Notably, the Yatra would travel till Ghazni in Afghanistan while traversing through Pakistan. 

He reiterated the community’s demand that their history should be re-written through correction of the wrong facts clinging to its origin and identity because of the apathy of the Government.

He again demanded a special status for them in Uttarakhand on the lines of what the community members enjoy in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

He further pitched for the constitution of Gurjar Vikas Ayog at the national level to take care of the collective interest of the community.