Several trains were delayed on the Howrah-Tatanagar and Chaibasa-RajKharsawan sections of South Eastern Railway (SER) following a ‘rail roko’ agitation by the activists of All India Ho Language Action Committee (AIHLC), a tribal outfit demanding the Centre to include Ho language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

The agitation took place at Salgajhuri, 8 Kms away from Tatanagar railway station and Chaibasa railway station, 70 Kms from here. Members of the tribal outfit with banners and placards and raising slogans against the Centre started gathering at Salgajhuri from as early as 6 am on Wednesday.

The Steel Superfast Express which left Tatanagar railway station on its right time at 6.15 am got stuck in the agitation at Salgajhuri. The agitators squatted on the railway tracks preventing the train to move. The train was stopped for about one-and-half- hours from 6.25 am to 7.45 am before it left for its onward journey.

The New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Sampark Kranti Express was detained at the Tatanagar railway station for over one-and-half-hour after the train reached at 6.20 am. The train left for Bhubaneshwar at 8 am.

The Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Superfast Express was also detained for over one hour at Salgaghuri. The train was delayed by about one-and-half-hour when it reached Tatanagar. The schedule time of arrival of the Delhi-bound Purushottam Express at Tatanagar is 6.35 am whereas the train came here today at 8 am.

Movement of trains was also hit in the Chaibasa and Rajkharsawan route. The Barbil-Tata Passenger which travels via Chaibasa-Rajkharsawan route was delayed by one hour when the train reached Tatanagar Wednesday. The schedule arrival time of the passenger train in 9.50 am but the train came at 10.50 am.

Policemen including Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police ( GRP) were deployed at both the places of agitation. Tatanagar station director H K Balmuchu said normal train services were restored in both the sections after 8 pm.

The agitators alleged that despite the assurance of inclusion of ‘Ho’ dialect in the 8th Schedule, the government has failed to fulfil the demand. They resorted to the rail roko agitation to press for their demand. Ho language, which is written in Warang Chiti script, is the mother tongue of nearly 10 lakh tribal people living in Odisha and Jharkhand. After Santali, which has already been included, Ho is the second most widely spoken tribal language in the State.