Nine trains cancelled, routes of 7 changed as Kurmi community stir to begin in Jharkhand today
Kurmi community has been demanding the inclusion of their community in the list of Scheduled Tribes and Kurmali language in the eighth schedule of the Constitution for a long time.
Published: 20th September 2023 08:20 AM | Last Updated: 20th September 2023 08:20 AM | A+A A-
FILE | Agitators from the Kurmi community block railway tracks to press for their demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, in Mayurbhanj district on September 20, 2022. (Photo | PTI)
RANCHI: As the Kurmi community has announced to resume their indefinite rail blockade agitation from Wednesday, South Eastern Railways has cancelled nine trains while routes of seven others have been changed.
The agitation is likely to affect trains passing through at least 10 stations in Jharkhand and Odisha. Plans of agitation at West Bengal stations were withdrawn after Kolkata High Court put a ban on it on Tuesday.
Notably, the Kurmi community has been demanding the inclusion of their community in the list of Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Kurmali language in the eighth schedule of the Constitution for a long time. According to the agitating leaders, the Kurmi community was listed among the aboriginal tribes in 1913 during the British era, but when the Centre notified ST lists on September 6, 1950, Kurmis were put in the list of other backward castes (OBC) in Bihar, Bengal, and Odisha.
Earlier, agitators belonging to the Kurmi community had staged the first rail blockade in September 2022 and again between April 5-10 this year resulting in the cancellation of several mail, express, and passenger trains and numerous other trains were diverted or terminated, affecting lakhs of passengers.
“We will be staging rail blockade at strategic stations across Jharkhand and Odisha simultaneously. Talks are also on to stage agitation at Assam from September 20 onwards,” said central president of the Totemic (a Kurmi clan) Kurmi Vikash Morcha, Sheetal Ohdar.
They will not withdraw their agitation until an assurance is given to them of taking up the matter at the proper forum, he added.
Ohdar also demanded the centre to announce raising the matter in the ongoing special session of the Parliament. He also appealed to the MPs belonging to the Kurmi community to raise the demand to include Kudmi in the ST list in the special session.
