A group of social activists including a faction of the religious fraternity have demanded justice for the victims of Rampur Tiraha incident and will launch a State-wide Nyay Yatra on October 3. They will submit memorandums at the collectorate offices across the State and spread awareness about the injustice meted out to the statehood activists. The social workers and activists alleged that both the national political parties Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party had ignored the rights of the statehood activists during their tenure in the State.
Notably, the Rampur Tiraha case refers to firing by police on Uttarakhand statehood activists on the night of October 1, 1994 when six activists had died and some women were allegedly raped and molested. The incident had left an indelible mark on the agitation for the creation of the Uttarakhand state and eventually led to the division of the State of then Uttar Pradesh, carving out the new State of Uttarakhand. The activists were going to Delhi to stage a sit-in protest at Raj Ghat on Gandhi Jayanti.
Speaking to media persons in the Press club on Sunday, social worker and activist J P Badoni under the banner of Devbhoomi Civil Society said, “We shall be launching Nyay Yatra (justice march) on October 3 which will traverse through major parts of the State including Kotdwar, Khatima, Bageshwar, Almora, Tehri and culminate in Dehradun on October 14 at Shahid Sthal. Our demands are from the present Government to give due justice to the victims of the statehood activist women and men.” Comprising of some 12 such persotns, the representatives would be travelling from place to place in Uttarakhand.
Narrating the incident, when the women who were molested were given shelter at ashram of Swami Madhavanand who later expired, Badoni said that the agitation is being supported by women activists like Sushila Baluni, Kamla Pant and some members of the religious fraternity like Mahant Vinod Giri, Baba Hathayogi, Brahmin Sabha and Arakshan Virodhi party.
Badoni alleged that the present government had failed on all fronts be it forest conservation or giving basic facilities in the mountainous region which has led to migration of villagers to plains. The forest cover was also reduced from 60 to 40 per cent in the State, he claimed.
Badoni made a serious allegation that the list of beneficiaries issued by the State Government as statehood activists included some names of people who were not even born and have now become 18 years old.
He said that through his efforts 442 names of such ineligible beneficiaries were scrapped from the list of statehood activists.