Kolkata- A division bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Thursday, directed the Indian Railways authorities as well as the West Bengal government to take appropriate action so that the rail blockade movement on September 20 by the people from the Kurmi community does not affect normal life in the state on that day.

Last month, Adivasi Kurmi Samaj, the largest association of the Kurmi Community, gave a call for a rail blockade simultaneously in the tribal dominated pockets in the three states of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha, demanding Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for the community. A petition was filed against the proposed rail blockade at the Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Smita Das De against the rail blockade call, claiming that this movement will result in huge financial losses both for the state government and for the Railways.

The matter came up for hearing on Thursday. During the hearing, the division bench observed that similar rail blockades by the people from the Kurmi community with the same demand took place in 2022 and 2023, which resulted in huge losses. The division bench also observed that in September 2023, an erstwhile division bench of the Calcutta High Court gave specific directions on how to control the rail blockage movements. On Thursday, the division bench of Justice Paul and Justice Das De observed that the Calcutta High Court directions in September 2023 should be followed by the Railways authorities and the state government this time to control the proposed rail blockade on September 20.

Political and social mobilisation has intensified in Jharkhand over the demand for granting ST status for the Kurmi community. While Kurmi organisations are preparing for a series of agitations in Jharkhand, Odisha, and Bengal, other tribal groups are strongly opposing the move, raising fears of a possible confrontation. The Kurmi Community people in West Bengal had been alleging since the beginning that an administrative conspiracy was going on in the state where the administration was trying to instigate the people of the Santal community against Kurmis, and this was destabilising the latter’s movement. However, the state government had been denying the allegations since the beginning. (IANS)