75 trains cancelled as rail blockade by Kurmis continue in Bengal

Kolkata: Train services were disrupted in three tribal-dominated districts of West Bengal — Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore — following continued rail-blockade agitation by the Kurmi community on Saturday.

As many as 75 trains in the South Eastern Railway division had to be cancelled on Saturday due to the rail blockade agitation which was by the people from the Kurmi community on April 5. The routes of several trains also had to be either diverted or curtailed during the day, causing immense inconvenience to the commuters.

Sources in the Railways said that in the last four days, as many as 308 trains had to be cancelled in the said division due to the agitation. The agitators also protested by blocking national highways passing through these three tribal-dominated districts.

The Kurmi community is agitating in support of its long-standing demand for recognition under the Schedule Tribe category. Their main grievance 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 tribe.

Representatives of the community have alleged that the reluctance of the institute as well as the state government to send a comprehensive report in this matter to the Union government is holding back the process of recognition of the Kurmi community under the ST category.