KPP announces fresh agitation

KPP leaders Uttam Roy (left) and Anarul Sheikh in Siliguri on Tuesday.
(Kundan Yolmo)

TT, Siliguri, June 2: The Kamtapur Progressive Party has decided to take up an extensive movement in the next two months over their demands for the separate state of Kamtapur and the recognition of Rajbangshi language.

Leaders of the KPP, who held a news conference here this afternoon, said the outfit would launch the movement from June 15 and might even go to the extent of blocking highways and railway tracks in north Bengal to snap connectivity between the Northeast and the rest of the country.

Anarul Sheikh, the Bengal general secretary of the KPP, today said the agitation would begin with two long marches, followed by submission of memorandums to seven district magistrates in north Bengal.

The KPP hasn't undertaken any major movement in the past one year.

"The central committee of the party met at Shivmandir (near Siliguri) last night. The entire plan for the movement was finalised at the meeting. The BJP had mentioned in its election manifesto (in 2014) that it would sympathetically consider our demand. A year has passed and yet, nothing has been done by the Centre so far. So, we have decided to launch the movement and continue to strive for our demands," Sheikh said.

According to him, the marches will commence from Farakka and Bongaigaon in Assam on June 15. Both the marches will converge in Cooch Behar after 10 days on June 25.

Those marching from Farakka will have to cover a distance of 544km, while the participants in the Bongaigaon procession will have to walk for around 150km.

"After the processions, our delegations will go to the offices of all seven district magistrates in north Bengal to submit memorandums on our demands from July 1 to 7. Further, there will be a public meeting in Siliguri on July 12. If we are not permitted to organise the meeting in Siliguri, we will convene it in an adjacent area," Sheikh said.

Uttam Roy, the Assam state general secretary of the KPP, said after the meeting in Siliguri, the party leaders would head for Delhi.

"We will stage a dharna at Jantar Mantar in Delhi in the middle of July. S.S. Ahluwalia (the Darjeeling MP), has said during the monsoon session of Parliament, he will arrange meetings with Union home minister and Union human resources development minister with us," Roy said.

The KPP leaders said if there was no positive response from the Centre by the end of July, they would intensify the movement by setting up blockades on highways and railway tracks, holding rallies and demonstrations and calling general strikes. "The agitation will continue in a consistent manner. We want to make it clear that north Bengal is the link between the Northeast and the rest of the country. If our demands are not met, we will take our movement to such a state that the connectivity between the Northeast and the rest of the country would be snapped," Roy said.