UP tribals got rights and better life after 2017: CM

Lucknow: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Monday that tribals of UP did not have the right to vote before 2017 and were instead subjected to brainwashing by some missionaries and leftists.
Speaking at an event of the RSS-backed National Medico Organisation in Lucknow, Yogi said tribals did not have the facility of a ration card, and their habitats were not given road or rail connectivity. "It was after the BJP govt came to office that every facility was provided to all the tribes, including Tharu, Musahar, Kol, and Gond," Yogi said.
RSS national general secretary Dattatrey Hosabale and many senior Sangh office bearers from the Awadh Prant were present on the occasion.
The event was organised to felicitate the workers of the Shri Guru Gorakhnath Health Service Yatra 5.0. The CM said there were no rights in 55 villages of Vantangiya. "The situation was also becoming a threat to the security of the country," he said. The CM said there is a long series of yatras in India. He cited how Adi Shankaracharya connected India culturally through the Shankar Digvijay Yatra.
"Such religious journeys are not just a means of faith, but also a means of binding society together," he said, adding that from north to south, east to west, India has been a cultural unit since ancient times, and no one could impose a ban on religious journeys.
The work of re-establishing such unity in the India-Nepal border area also started five years ago, he said. Yogi said people would be surprised to learn that though the country got independence in 1947, the people of these villages neither had the right to vote nor a ration card until 2017. "Neither electricity, nor roads, nor any health facility. The forest department and policemen used to exploit them," he said, adding that it was after the BJP came to office in 2017 that these villages got the recognition of revenue villages, and gradually all the schemes were implemented.
Sharing historical facts, Yogi said Tharu tribe was settled in the terai forests by the British. They were told to live in the forest. They lived in huts and suffered exploitation. Even after independence, govts turned a blind eye towards them. The CM said that these people have now started voting. "Even in the 2022 and 2024 elections, thousands of people became voters for the first time. Now every village has a road, every house has electricity, and everyone has got houses," he said, adding that anganwadi centres are open, and schools and health centres are being built.
Yogi said we should express gratitude to the RSS, former Sangh leader Nanaji Deshmukh and his guru Mahant Avaidyanath, who made arrangements for hostels and schools for the children. Yogi recalled how years ago he gathered information from the Hindu Jagran Manch during the conflict between Maoists and Madhesis in Nepal. "Then I understood how the Sangh and its associated organisations are working in the border areas," he said.
The CM said that this journey continued even during the Corona epidemic. "People there neither got medicine nor information for diseases like encephalitis, skin disease, and TB. We collected data, stayed overnight, and provided health services, and arranged for nutritious food. Now people are living a better life, and their confidence has increased," he said.