KPP to re-launch stir for state of Kamtapur

11 January 2012
statesman news service
SILIGURI, 11 JAN: The Kamtapur Progressive Party (KPP) is to re-launch
its agitation for a separate state of Kamtapur comprising six north
Bengal districts. The party plans to organise meetings and rallies
across north Bengal to oppose the Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha’s claim
over lands in certain “moujas” in the Terai-Dooars region in reference
to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. The party will hold a
rally at Baghajatin Park in Siliguri on 16 January to mark the
re-launch.
“The separate state of Kamtapur is our legitimate demand and under no
circumstances will we budge from our stance. We will fight for it to
the last. At the same time, we will oppose tooth and nail the GJMM
land clamour involving the Terai-Dooars. The Hill-based party has no
right to claim these areas, either historically or demographically,”
said the KPP president, Mr Atul Roy.
Imparting a warning to the Centre and the state governments, Mr Roy
said that the Centre and the state’s rigid stance on the matter might
land the multi-ethnic region in a political conflagration.
Alleging double standards on both the Centre and the state
government’s part regarding the Gorkhaland and Kamtapur, the KPP
president said that they would not remain silent  if the governmental
antipathy on the matter continued. “Both the Centre and the state
government have been pampering the Gorkhaland protagonists while
suppressing ethnic aspirations of the indigenous Rajbanshi community,”
he said.
“We want constitutional recognition of the Kamtapuri language and
fulfillment of other ethno-cultural demands. The Left Front government
kept sitting tight on our collective demands. The present government
is doing the same. The situation might turn volatile again if the
attitude does not change,” he warned.
The assistant general secretary of the KPP central committee, Mr
Anarul Seikh, said that they had already raised objection to the GJMM
claim on lands in the Teari-Dooars region in their submission to the
Shymal Sen Committee.
“We have also served a memorandum to the chief minister and the north
Bengal development minister reiterating our stance on the matter,” he
said.