Gram Swarajya Abhiyan, a project of Ekal Vidyalaya Scheme, has announced a countrywide agitation for achieving complete independence and to establish Gram Swaraj on birth anniversary of Mahtma Gandhi i.e. October 2. More than 25,000 villagers representing 2200 Panchayats of Jharkhand took out rallies across the state and pledged before the picture of Mahatma Gandhi to achieve complete independence. The agitators would hold meetings in 2500 villages of Jharkhand on November 15, the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda, to press upon their demands. Besides Jharkhand, the agitation would also be launched in Orissa, West Bengal, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Thousands of people at Mubarakpur-Benipur, under Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh, also pledged for agitation on October 2.
Shri Madhvendra Singh, central project in-charge of Ekal Vidyalaya Scheme and Shri Lallan Prasad, central in-charge of Swabhiman Jagran Abhiyan, were also present on the occasion. Shri Ashok Bhagat, secretary of Vikas Bharati Bishunpur, and Shri Mahendra Bhagat of Swabhiman Jagran Abhiyan led the agitation in Jharkhand. The agitation is being led by Shri Ravi Kisan and Shri Sapan Gwal in Assam, Shri Ranjan Bagh in Orissa, Shri Dilip Ghosh in West Bengal, Shri Jaylal Netam in Chhattisgarh, Shri Gyan Singh and Shri Anant Markam in Madhya Pradesh and Shri Vinod Kumar in Uttar Pradesh.
After education, health and village development, Swabhiman Jagran is the fourth dimension of Ekal Vidyalaya scheme, to seek all constitutional rights of villagers. It is also imparting training to villagers to take the benefit of Right to Information Act. A state level workshop held in Ranchi from September 10 to 12, demanded concrete steps for the protection of jal (water), jangal (forest), zamin (land), janwar (animals) and jan (people).
One of the prime objectives of the Abhiyan is to develop Vanvasi leadership and solution of rural problems. The Ekal Vidyalaya Scheme is running projects of education, health and rural development in 25,000 villages of the country. One more uniqueness of the scheme is that it is being run mostly by Vanvasi workers. (FOC)
