Kolkata, May 6 (IANS) Besides continuing their ongoing agitations against West Bengal government over their demands for scheduled tribe status, the Kurmi community in West Bengal has opened up a larger movement targeting all political parties.
The agitating Kurmi community in the three tribal-dominated Jangalmahal areas scattered over the three districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia have started a unique ‘All Wall for Kurmi’ campaign. This campaign is to send a message to all political parties in the state that the walls of the residences of the people from the community cannot be used for political campaigns for the forthcoming panchayat polls in the state scheduled this year.
According to Birendranath Mahato, their long-standing demand for scheduled tribe status is yet to be fulfilled. “No political party has taken our demands seriously and hence we have decided not to allow any political party to use any wall of any property owned by the people of the Kurmi community for their respective elections graffities and campaigns for the panchayat polls,” Mahato said.
He also said that they have already started a wall campaign “All wall for Kurmi,” to send a message that these walls are not meant for utilisation for campaign purposes by any political party.
Local leaders from both Trinamool Congress and BJP have admitted that this stance from the Kurmi community will create some hurdles in the community since in these remote tribal areas, wall- graffities are the principal medium of campaign.
The main grievance of the agitators is that the West Bengal Cultural Research Institute, a state government body that works for indigenous tribes, is yet to recognise the Kurmis as representatives of primitive tribes. They also alleged that the reluctance of the institute or the state government to send a comprehensive report in the matter to the Union government is holding back the process of recognition of the Kurmi community under the Scheduled Tribe category.
On April 11, there was a bipartite meeting between the leaders of the community and the state government at the state secretariat of Nabanna. However, the meeting failed to evoke any positive result. On that day only, the Kurmi leaders had threatened to go ahead with their agitation.
–IANS
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