Gorakhpur, Nov 3 (IANS): The village of the Vantangiya community in Uttar Pradesh are waiting to celebrate Diwali with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The Chief Minister, since the past several years, has been celebrating Diwali with the Vantangiya community.

"We will not light single diya without the Chief Minister who is like our Lord Ram. All credit for our celebrating Diwali goes to him who has changed our lives for the better," said Matki Lal, a 69-year-old villager.

Adityanath, since he became Chief Minister in 2017, has given revenue status to Vantangiya villages.

"We now have houses, roads, power supply, water, school, streetlights, Anganwadi centre and RO water machines and much more. All this has happened in the last 4.5 years. Our 380 families got Antyodaya cards, 423 families got houses and there are 458 toilets in the village while 600 people got MNREGS job cards. We are getting benefits of various schemes," Matki Lal added.

The Vantangiya community comprises people brought from Myanmar during the colonial rule to plant trees for afforestation.

Adityanath, soon after taking over the reins of power in the state, had directed the officials to initiate steps for bringing members of the community to the mainstream.

The community faced problems related to the use of natural forest produce like fruits, honey, wax, wood and leaves to meet their daily needs as the forests inhabited by them were not considered as revenue villages.

Conversion of tribal-dominated forest villages to revenue villages under the provisions of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act enabled the administration to adopt development measures such as setting up of schools.