A whole system of rail and road communication was on Monday literally hijacked by a relatively unknown pressure group in the Jangalmahal area of Bengal area demanding, among other things, official recognition of Santhali and Olchiki languages, appointment of Santhali teachers in schools and construction of tribal-specific hostels.
Called by Bharat Jakat Majhi Pargana Mahal, a relatively new face in the history of Jangalmahal, the bandh took an oppressive character by the evening when the passengers and the authorities were informed that what started as a dawn-to-dusk blockade would continue indefinitely, sources said.
“We have been petitioning the Government since 2003 for inclusion of Santhali in the list of official language. But though it has been recognised by the Constitution, it is yet to be used as an alternative official language in Government offices,” a BJMPM leader said.
“We want Santhali and Olchiki to be recognised as official languages, besides we want these languages to be taught in the schools and for that teachers will have to be appointed. We also want Adivasi hostels in various places,” another leader said adding the bandh would not be called off until some assurance came from the respective Governments.
Even as the Central and State Governments were lukewarm in their response in reacting to the situation tens of trains remained vulnerable and stranded, some of them in open fields. Railway services were heavily disrupted in Howrah-Kharagpur, Kharagpur-Tatanagar,
Kharagpur-Bhadrak, Kharagpur-Adra sections as trains remained stranded at Purulia, Bankura, Adra, Nekursuni, Basta, Salboni, Balichak and other places.
Sandwiched between the tribal demands and Governmental indifference were thousands of helpless passengers, students, women, children, patients desperately asking for food and water through the day and throughout the night even as none from the powers that be tended to come forward to account for the affairs.
At least four districts of Purulia, Birbhum, West Midnapore and Bankura came under the impact area of the sudden bandh. The national highways linking Bengal with Jharkhand, Odisha and the entire South and Western India were also affected. Even as tracks were blocked with stranded trains in many places in Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha sources in the South-Eastern Railways said at least nine trains from Kolkata had been cancelled. Apart from these a number of trains had been rescheduled, sources maintained.“We are returning from an educational trip to Vishakhapatnam with 73 girl students. Now we are standing in the middle of nowhere though the Railways have provided us with some security guards,” S Sen the Principal of the BSS School said.
Falling in the mainline between Howrah and Madras the route is a busy one frequented by hundreds of patients travelling between Kolkata and Vellore. “We have a number of patients returning from South India. Their condition is precarious,” a student of the school said.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Government and the BJP locked horns over a Bengal bandh called by the saffron outfit on September 26 in protest against death of two school children in an alleged police firing in Islampur block of North Dinajpur district. “We will not allow any bandh to take place in Bengal. All the Government offices and transport will remain open,” State Education Minister Partho Chatterjee said adding all leaves of Government employees had been cancelled.
