Updated: Sun, 19 Oct 2025 12:14 (IST) There is a special celebration of Diwali in Vantangiya village of Gorakhpur. Here, the once neglected forest-dwelling community is today on the path of development. The women expressed happiness over the arrival of Yogi Adityanath, who provided facilities like permanent houses, electricity, water and free gas connections to the village. The change that started in 2009 took place even faster after the village got the status of income town in 2017. Now everyone is excited to welcome the Chief Minister. On the day of Diwali, the administration is preparing for the arrival of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Vantangiya village, Jungle Tinkoniya number three, while on the other hand, the people of the village are also excited about his program. Yogis reach this village every year and celebrate Diwali with them. Village women practice welcome song for the arrival of the Chief Minister. Abhinav Rajan Chaturvedi, rising from a lane of Jungle Tinkonia number three in Vantangiya village, waves of sound fall in the ears – Since Yogi ji, the lamp in the village has been lit…the bhagiya of our village has been awakened, the lotus has blossomed in the courtyard…. A few steps further a decorated pandal is visible on the left. Here, the urn kept amidst the beautiful rangoli on the altar painted with cow dung seems to be waiting to come alive with the arrival of Goddess Lakshmi. Remove ads Only read news It’s a festive wait. There is no restlessness in this, only joy. A group of women drowning in this joy sing songs with great emotion. The flower on which the Goddess of Luck and Prosperity will sit in this pandal has bloomed in every courtyard here. It is a coincidence that the one who makes the flowers of prosperity bloom in every courtyard along with Mother Lakshmi herself will come here to celebrate the festival of lights. Hence, there is double the excitement on Diwali here. This report of Ashutosh Mishra is presented from Vantangiya village, Jungle Tinkoniya number three. As soon as the chorus stopping the steps subsides, Kutura Devi, full of enthusiasm, starts a new melody – Kab aiba yogi ji hamare nagariya…kab hum dekhab tohen phir bhar nazariya…. Sanju, Kiran, Meera and Dwija Devi join in with joy. When the song ends, a question comes from the group of women to know the purpose of the unknown faces standing in front. She finds the journalist below her who has come to see the preparations for the Chief Minister’s arrival, and begins to share the sentiments of the housewives here with another song. Through the song, she expresses her gratitude to Yogi Adityanath who freed her from the hut and got a permanent house, electricity bulb from Dhibri, free ration and free cooking gas connection, freeing her from the trouble of collecting wood. Then Kutura Devi tells – Ever since Baba (Yogi Adityanath) first came here to light lamps on Diwali in 2009, she celebrates the festival by singing his songs in the same way. Every year she takes the women and goes to decorate Baba Ji’s stage in the village and sings these songs there. When the topic of savior comes up, every woman in the group is unable to control her emotions, from which Sanju points the way forward. While recounting that there used to be knee-deep water here, Sanju recalls the times when the roofs blew away during storms and the villagers spent the night with their children drenched in the rain. When one fell ill, going to the hospital on a bed was nothing short of hell, now there is a hospital in the town itself. Every home is permanent. Everyone provided water. The stove’s burner had long since disappeared; LPG cylinder took its place. Everything is Baba Ji’s gift. In such a situation its coming our Diwali. Dwija Devi sitting next to him excitedly says – She wakes up at 2 am on Diwali. The village roads are decorated with rangoli. We celebrate Diwali only after Baba Ji lights the lamp. Besides words, this change is also visible step by step. 100 percent of the population is covered by the residence of the Chief Minister and Prime Minister. A bicycle is parked in front of almost every house. Looking at this, a collage of everyday development of the town is visible in front of one or two houses. We stop to take pictures. Ramratan sees this and comes close. He tells that this is his son Pappu’s house. He bought this car and scooter with his own earnings. The thresher in front along with the buffaloes and goats also belong to his family. There are three public RO kiosks installed in the same street. But Ram Ratan says that the tap water of Har Ghar Nal Yojana is more beneficial than these dams and shows a huge water tank visible in the distance. The building of Arogya Mandir is visible a few meters away. Here Community Health Officer Shweta Nishad is found ready for duty. She sees enough medicine and resources, when we ask her about the OPD that happens every day, she tells that 15-20 people regularly come here for treatment. Telemedicine assistance is taken when needed. Reference is made when absolutely necessary. From here, Ramganesh, who is called Mukhiya, is found in front of the government’s cheap grocery store. He says that every family here benefits from schemes like Ujjwala, BPL card, Antyodaya card. The lamp that Yogi Adityanath lit as MP in the midst of illiteracy and poverty destroyed the darkness of generations and filled the village with the light of development. He shows the building of the Sanskrit school of Gorakshanath Peeth and tells how he launched a campaign to educate and secure the future of this place. After becoming the Chief Minister in 2017, he got the status of revenue town and secured the right to live on his land, protecting him from the lathicharge of the administration. They not only adopted us forest dwellers but also gave us the status of family and come among us every year to celebrate Diwali. Be it children or elders of the village, everyone is waiting to welcome the Chief Minister with full enthusiasm. Is. The fast-building German hangar and stage in front suggest that the wait will turn into a festival in a few hours. This is the real Diwali, away from the pain and suffering of ages. The light of Diwali will tell the story of upliftment from neglect. Tinkoniya No. 3, a forest located in the lap of Kusumahi forest in Gorakhpur district, has also become the center of another celebration on the occasion of Diwali this year. After suffering generations of neglect, displacement and identity scrutiny, the settlement now shows signs of a bright future. Like every year, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is also going to celebrate Diwali with this forest-dwelling community this time. Past of neglect: Vantangiya community, unaware of identity, was the name of the forest dweller class who settled in the forest during the British rule for the care and planting of Sakhu and other trees. British officers established these settlements to develop new forests by the “Tangiya” method after large-scale felling of Sakhu for railway sleepers. Because of the “Tangiya” method it was called ‘One-Tangiya’. But even after independence this community did not get the benefits of civil rights, land ownership and schemes. Life at the hut level, no right to vote, no irrigated land, this was the condition for decades. First rays of development By 2009, MP Yogi Adityanath took the first step to connect this colony with the mainstream. He started celebrating Diwali in this village, making it a symbol that ‘there will be change now’. After coming under the Uttar Pradesh government in 2017, this village was declared ‘Revenue Village’ and a flood of schemes and facilities started coming. Housing, toilet, electricity, drinking water, school center – everything.
‘Diyava Jarai Gaila…Bhagiya Jagai Gaila’, Diwali celebration of development and hope in Vantangiya – from tangiya village celebrate diwali with development and hope
