Mail News Network
Jamshedpur, Nov 29: Former Ghatsila MLA and president of Jharkand People’s Party, Surya Singh Besra along with former MP Shailendra Mahato on Saturday called for a fresh agitation in support of the Kurmi Samaj’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status and also for the demand for greater Jharkhand.
In September the Adivasi Kurmi Samaj had launched an inter-state protest to press for their long-pending demand for ST status and inclusion of the Kurmali language in the eighth schedule of the Constitution. Train services on the South Eastern Railways were affected owing to the protestors blocking railway tracks.
Besra and Mahato have threatened to stage a huge demonstration in New Delhi in March 2023 if the members of Kurmi Samaj are not included in the ST category with immediate effect. The duo also said that the tribal populace and their leaders had envisaged a greater Jharkhand which included many more districts carved out of West Bengal and Odisha. The leaders said that the agitation for greater Jharkhand should be renewed.
“The tribal leaders who laid down their lives for the fight for a separate Jharkhand had planned for a much larger state. But, the people who grabbed power after Jharkhand came into being did not pursue this any further for petty political gains. In a similar manner the Kurmi Samaj people were part of the ST category before Independence but they were victimized to petty politicians who conspired to push them out of the category. We will take up these two contentious people’s issues with the central government in New Delhi in March 2023,” Besra and Mahato said.
