Various Koch Rajbanshi organisations have urged the Assam government to expedite the process of granting Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the community and recognise the Rajbanshi language.
Representatives of the Koch Rajbanshi Sahitya Sabha, Koch Rajbanshi Lekhika Sabha and Koch Rajbanshi Students’ Association submitted a memorandum to Assam Guardian Minister Ashok Singhal at the Circuit House, raising a series of demands concerning the community.
Koch Rajbanshi Sahitya Sabha president Dwijendra Nath Bhakat said the organisations primarily sought clarity on the status of the Assam government’s report recommending ST status for the community. They questioned whether the report had been forwarded to the Centre and why the process remained pending.
The organisations also demanded that the upcoming bridge connecting Dhubri with Phulbari be named after a historical Koch Rajbanshi ruler, preferably Maharaja Biswa Singha or Maharaja Parikshit Narayan, citing the region’s historical association with the Koch rulers.
They further urged the government to ensure that the community and its language were correctly recorded as Koch Rajbanshi and Rajbanshi respectively in the ongoing Census.
Another major demand was the inclusion of Rajbanshi in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. Bhakat urged the state government to take up the matter in the Cabinet and Assembly before forwarding a recommendation to the Centre.
He also referred to initiatives in West Bengal to promote the Rajbanshi language and called for similar measures in Assam.
The memorandum was submitted in the presence of several community leaders, including AKRSU general secretary Nimai Chandra Roy, Koch Rajbanshi Sahitya Sabha Samiti vice-president Bipul Chandra Adhikari, UG AKRSU president Ratul Roy, AKRSU working president Raghu Ranjan Bepari and AKRSU president Shyam Koch.
