Dharna by thousands of Bengali Refugees in Maharastra

Thousands of Bengali refugees rehabilitated by Government of India in Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Gondia, Bhandara and Nagpur district of Maharastra in 1964-71 sat on dharna after a rally in all these 5 districts together on 18.12.2012 demanding their constitutional rights. Major demands are-

1. Providing caste reservation to Namasudra, Poundra, Pod, Paramanik and Rajvanshi in Maharastra as they are considered in Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Orissa and West Bengal.

2. Providing land ownership to these refugees

3. Providing Citizenship certificates to these communities as they are residing here for more than 47 years and their children are born and brought up here

4. Relaxation of the condition that to own forest land, at least 3 generations must be possession of such forest land

5. Completing the Chenna Irrigation Project at the earliest

6. Providing scholarship to the Bengali refugee children studying in 4th standard 

More than 8000 people in Mulchera & 12000 in Chamurshi of Gadchiroli district, about 4000 people in Gondia on 17th December 2012. Parallel to this, hundreds of people sat on dharna before the Vidhan Sabha consecutively for 3rd year during the winter session and continued till 21st December 2012.  

The dharna was lead by the leaders of Nikhil Bharat Bangali Udbastu Samanvay Samiti like State Secretary Sri Bidhan Bepari, Central Joint Secretary Sri Nirmal Mondal, District President Sri Madhav Gharami, State Vice President Sri Deepak Haldar, Treasurer Sri Subhash Sarkar, Satish Roy, Shailendra Shikari, Nirmal Haldar, Nikhil Biswas, Bijan Sarkar, Utpal Mondal, Kiran Roy, Rabin Paul, Swapan Bar, Amar Mondal, Bishwanath Biswas, Ratan Sarkar, Sunil Roy, Manoranjan Haldar, Savitri Gharami and others in Gadchiroli district.

Maharastra State President Dr Ranjit Mondal, Principal Shailen Khairati, Sri Utpal Khairati, Sri Badal Shah, Sri Rabin Shah lead the protest in Mulchera district; similarly in Gondia the protest was lead by District President Sri Shanti Ranjan Debnath, Dr Jatin Biswas, Babul Banik, Narayan Sadhu and others.  

Many elected representatives participated in the dharna; to name some of them are the former State Minister Sri Dharmarao Baba, ZP member Smt Sandhya Dudhabale, GP President Varsha Bhandekar, Vicepresident Manomohan Bandavar, Senate Member Prakash Godam, Ramesh Bhurse, Ashok Poreddyvar, Revnath Kushram, Raju Atram, Amol Ganyapavar, Swapril Varghante and others.

Bengalis protest before Maharastra Vidhana Sabha during winter session

Nagpur

To resolve the unsolved problems of rehabilitated Bengalis in Maharastra, hundreds of Bengali refugees sat before the Vidhana Sabha in Nagpur on 18.12.2012 consecutively for 3rd year with their constitutional demands and fundamental rights. The demands includes-

1. Providing caste reservation to Namasudra, Poundra, Pod, Paramanik and Rajvanshi in Maharastra as they are considered in Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Orissa and West Bengal.

2. Providing land ownership to these refugees

3. Providing Citizenship certificates to these communities as they are residing here for more than 47 years and their children are born and brought up here

4. Relaxation of the condition that to own forest land, at least 3 generations must be possession of such forest land

5. Completing the Chenna Irrigation Project at the earliest

6. Providing scholarship to the Bengali refugee children studying in 4th standard

Published in Lokmat Samachar, Hitwada, Dainik Bhaskar  Navbharat and Purna Nagari newspaper

Former Minister Sri Vijay Barettivar, BJP State President Sri Sudheer Mungantivar, MLA Sri Hussain D, MLA Sri Devendra Fandvesh, Ex-MLA Sri Atram, etc addressed the gathering and assured their support for these constitutional demands.

A delegation of protesters met Maharastra Revenue Minister Sri Thorat in Ravi Bhavan where he promised that within 3 months from now, the land rights and ownership to the residential plots would be given to the Bengali refugees of Maharastra state. Similarly, the delegates also met the Social Welfare minister Sri Shivaji Rao Moghe and also Sri R R Patil, the Home Minister of Maharastra also promised and requested us to withdraw the protest. The Dharna andolan was temporarily withdrawn upon the assurance of all these representatives and ministers.  

This is not the story of only Maharastra but similar efforts are on in all 14 states under the umbrella of Nikhil Bharat Bangali Udbastu Samanvay Samiti; it is the only umbrella organization of Bengali refugees at national level and could bring this change for the first time in post-independence India. In this series, the achievement of Karnataka Chapter could be added as they have made a history by gaining the constitutional rights of studying mother tongue in local Government run schools up to 8th standard. Similar efforts could be seen in almost all states and hope the Bengali refugees of India would achieve the constitutional rights in near future under the banner of NiBBUSS.

The Dharna andolan was lead by National President Dr. Subodh Biswas, Central Treasure Dr Ajit Mallik, State President Dr. Ranjit Mondal, State Secretary Sri Bidhan Bepari, Vice President Sri Deepal Haldar, Treasurer Sri Subhash Sarkar, District President Madhav Gharami, Principal Sri Shailen Khairati, Principal Sri Manoranjan Mondal, Joint Secretary Sri Satish Roy and Suranjan Bairagi, Nirmal Haldar, Rabin Paul, Santu Biswas, Sabita Biswas, Bidhan Baidya, Bimal Sen, Bimal Roy, Dheeraj Mukherjee, Sukdeb Biswas, Chandrakanta Mazhi, Shantiranjan Debnath and Dr Jatin Biswas.