File picture of Koch Rajbongshi activists at a dharna in Guwahati

Dhubri, June 28: The Koch Rajbongshi Sanmilita Mancha, a confederation of all the organisations of the community led by the All Koch-Rajbongshi Students’ Union (AKRSU), today resolved to launch a fresh movement in support of their demand for the creation of Kamtapur state.

All the organisations of the community, including the Separate State Demand Committee, a joint committee of Assam and north Bengal, have shown solidarity to take forward the movement.

The committee was formed two years ago to put pressure on West Bengal, Assam and the Centre to carve out parts of north Bengal and Assam to create Kamtapur.

The manch has been demanding Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Malda districts of West Bengal and from Dhemaji in north Assam up to Morigaon in south Assam as part of Kamtapur.

In the first phase of the movement, a delegation of the confederation will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and chief minister Tarun Gogoi to demand Kamtapur and Scheduled Tribe status for the community.

In the second phase, a meeting of all Koch Rajbongshi legislators will be held in Guwahati on July 4.

The manch will also stage a dharna at Dispur Last Gate on July 11 and hold a meeting at Bijni on August 7.

The president of the manch and AKRSU, Biswajit Roy, said they had planned to send a delegation to Delhi to meet the Prime Minister but the meeting had been delayed because of the sudden unrest in Delhi arising out of Anna Hazare’s movement on the Lokpal bill.

“But on July 4, we will hold a meeting of all the newly elected legislators from the community in Guwahati to seek their support and then stage a dharna at Dispur Last Gate. We will also hold a meeting at Bijni to formulate a future course of action to realise our motto of separate state,” he added.

Roy accused Delhi and Dispur of dally-dallying on the issues of Kamtapur and ST status for the community. He said no concrete steps had been taken so far and successive Union and state governments had tried to hush up the demands.