Kamtapur party (KPP) seeks Rajnath ear

TT, Siliguri, Aug. 10: Leaders of the Kamtapur Progressive Party today said they would meet Union ministers in Delhi this week with demands for the formation of a separate state and recognition of Rajbangshi language.

"An 11-member delegation, led by party president Atul Roy, will meet Union home minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi on August 12 and human resource development minister Smriti Irani the next day. We will press for our demands of a separate state and also mention our other-longstanding demands, including recognition of Kamtapuri (Rajbangshi) language," Anarul Sheikh, the general secretary of the KPP, said here today.

The KPP leaders left for Delhi today by train.

Sheikh said the meetings had been arranged by Darjeeling MP S.S. Ahluwalia.

Last year, Ahluwalia, while speaking in Lok Sabha during zero hour, had raised the KPP's demands.

"We are the BJP's ally in north Bengal and had supported that party in the last Parliament polls. Ahead of the polls, the BJP had assured us that our demands would be considered sympathetically," a KPP leader said. "However, as nothing was done by the Centre since then, we were planning to resume our movement."

According to Sheikh, as Ahluwalia learned about their plan to re-launch the movement, he assured them that he would arrange the meetings with the Union ministers.

"The MP is in Delhi now and has been instrumental in fixing appointments with the two ministers. Further, we also have plans to meet the Prime Minister and the Union minister for information and broadcasting," the KPP general secretary said.

Another demand which the KPP delegation will raise at the meetings with the Union ministers is the introduction of passport and visa system for movement of people between India and Nepal by abolishing Article VII of the India-Nepal Friendship Treaty 1950.