This Diwali, UP CM Yogi asks govt employees to celebrate festival with needy, deprived families

Lucknow, Oct 24: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath extended Diwali greetings on Monday and urged people's representatives and employees to celebrate the festival with the deprived and needy people.

"May every house be illuminated with the light of enthusiasm and joy, this is the purpose of Diwali. It is an appeal to all people's representatives, officers and employees to celebrate this Diwali with any deprived or needy family.

"It should be our endeavour that today every house should be illuminated with the spirit of harmony, there should be 'Ramatv' all around," he said in a tweet. The chief minister also said he took 'darshan' at Ram Lala and Hanuman Garhi temple in Ayodhya on Diwali and shared separate videos of them.

In a video shared by the CM office, Adityanath urged people to not only celebrate the festival with their family with enthusiasm but also associate poor or weak person with it, which he said, will double the happiness.

"I am going to Gorakhpur to participate in the Diwali celebration along with Vanvasi, Vantangiya and people belonging to the Musahar caste," he said. Adityanath has been celebrating Diwali for the last 25 years with the people of the Vantangia community.

Originally brought from Myanmar for afforestation activities during the British period, people from the community have been living in forest villages without modern facilities as their villages lack the "revenue village" status that makes them eligible for various government welfare schemes.

After becoming UP chief minister in 2017, Adityanath granted "revenue village" status to many Vantangia people, including at least 18 in Maharajganj district and five each in Gonda and Gorakhpur districts and has unleashed a slew of welfare schemes for them.