Ghaziabad dist administration, politicos meet locals who converted to Buddhism

Protesting against the rise of atrocities against dalits, a group of Dalits people from Karera village in Uttar Pradesh converted to Buddhism recently. Following the incident, officials of Ghaziabad district administration and several political leaders on Wednesday met the locals and assured them State assistance to resolve their problems.

Ghaziabad: The district administration and political leaders of Ghaziabad on Wednesday met the people from the Valmiki community in Karera village who converted into Buddhism amid mounting anger over the Hathras case.

This morning, District collector Ajay Shankar Pandey and Senior Superintendent of Police, Kalanidhi Naithani reached the village to hold discussions with them.

Speaking to media persons, District collector, Pandey said, "We have held discussions with the people here. They have informed us about their problems. We have assured the people here that the district administration will completely resolve their problems."

"People informed us that a decision had been taken haphazardly and they have full confidence in the district administration that their problems will be resolved soon," Pandey said.

"We have made several demands which are connected with our rights. The district administration has also assured us that they will resolve our problems soon. The District collector also said that he will send a report to higher authorities detailing our demands," said Pavan Valmiki, a local resident of the village.

"Our first demand is Hathras victim's family should get justice. We have also mentioned the problems which we are facing. Unemployment, lack of education, absence of social justice are our major issues and we have listed them in our demand letter. We hope that the district administration will take adequate steps to resolve our problems," he added.

Meanwhile, political leaders also reached the village to hold discussions with the locals about their problems and assured to resolve the issues they have pointed out.

BJP MLA Sunil Sharma said, "Some political parties are trying to break the social structure. They are trying to drag religion into politics. As we are living in a democratic country, everyone has the right to speak but they should not break the society."

"The Valmikis who converted told that the alleged gangrape incident in Hathras led them to change their religion and we have also seen that after Yogi Adityanath took the charge of the chief minister, such incidents are happening on a daily basis. Several communities have been targeted in the State. Now after this incident, the government should resolve their problems soon," said, Chavi Yadav, State Vice President, Aam Aadmi Party.

Senior Congress Leader, Ajay Verma also slammed the BJP government over this incident. He said that Yogi government is trying to run a dictatorship in the state.

Reportedly, 236 people from 50 families of Karera village in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad have converted to Buddhism.