RANCHI: The Kurmi community on Saturday launched ‘Rail Teka–Dahar Chheka’ (rail and road blockade) protests across Jharkhand to press for its longstanding demand for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
Acting on a call by the Adivasi Kurmi community, protesters—all dressed in traditional attire—descended on the railway tracks in the morning. They squatted on the tracks in Giridih, Chakradharpur, Jamtara and Bokaro, disrupting rail traffic.
The Kurmi community had plans to hold up trains at 100 stations in Jharkhand, Bengal, and Odisha. Protesters also took over the tracks at the Muri, Tatisilwai, and Mesra stations, adjacent to Ranchi. To deal with the protesters, 500 RPF personnel were deployed at the Muri station.
Blockades were also witnessed in Bokaro, Ranchi, and Giridih, where protesters took control of smaller railway stations, in some places as early as 4.00 am. Despite efforts by the police in Kurmi-dominated areas through the Friday night, the protests went ahead largely unhindered.
The protests disrupted train services in Jharkhand, West Bengal and adjoining regions. In the wake of the protests, Section 144 has been clamped at four railway stations in Ranchi.
Chhotelal Mahto, a senior central vice president of the Kurmi community, claimed that the Kurmi community was included in the ST list in the 1931 census, but in the new list prepared in 1950, the names of other tribes remained while only the name of the Kurmi community was removed. “There is no basis for why our name was removed. This was a mistake and it should now be rectified,” he said.