The Van Gujjars of Rajaji national park and other forest areas of Uttarakhand have said that the Congress should remember its election manifesto and follow the directions of National Human Rights Commission to ensure that members of the community are not harassed by the forest department. They have demanded land ownership right, an end to their harassment by the department and reserving at least one seat in the State Assembly for a member of the community. If their demands are not met in a month they will protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to elicit the focus of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi.
Van Gujjars gathered at Rural litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RlEK) to draft a plan of action to end the unfair treatment being meted out to them. They demanded that they be treated as per the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
The rehabilitated Van Gujjars complained that the forest department had duped them, building ramshackle homes and not providing the promised roads, power supply, schools and other facilities. The department was receiving Rs 65,000 for the toilets built in the settlements but it costs Rs 30,000 maximum to build the inferior quality toilets constructed by the department. Those rehabilitated in Pathri decades ago complained that at the time of resettlement the authorities provided power supply without meters and now the Van Gujjars are being served bills amounting to Rs one lakh for power consumed. The Van Gujjars have demanded Scheduled Tribe status, a reserved seat for their community in the Vidhan Sabha, stopping forcible eviction of those Van Gujjars who do not wish to leave the forest, all facilities to exist in forests including the right to take fodder and other necessities for their animals into the forests and that their traditional right of transhumance not be restricted.
RlEK chairman Avadhash Kaushal said that he had brought to the notice of chief minister Vijay Bahuguna that the government should immediately organise a function and distribute land pattas in the joint names of husband and wife to the Van Gujjars of Gaindikhatta, Pathri and Bibiwala without delay.