The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has placed a
demand of declaring May 14, Buddha Jayanti, as a state holiday, even as
the ongoing Lok Sabha election has come as a breather to the growing
demand for a development council from various communities of the hills.
Taking up the demand today ahead of the
Buddhist festival on Wednesday, GJM assistant secretary Binay Tamang
said, “The Buddhists are a religious minority community. Community
members are not only confined in the Darjeeling hills, but live and work
all over Bengal. Hence, our demand that Buddha Jayanti be declared a
state holiday by the state government.”
However, Buddha Jayanti has long been
declared a holiday by the hill council, where employees belonging to the
community are given sectional holiday by the district administration
office.
The All India Tamang Buddhist
Association (AITBA) has also welcomed the GJM’s initiative saying it has
also placed the same demand before the state government.
“We welcome the move by the GJM to
declare Budhha Jayanti as a state holiday on May 14. We too have been
demanding this since 2007. We also want Sonam Loshar to be declared a
state holiday,” said AITBA general secretary MS Bomzon.
The association also wants all political parties of the hills to raise this demand.
“We have nothing against any community,
and all we want is we should also get some relaxation in the form of a
holiday during our festivals. Buddha Jayanti is our biggest festival and
it is only proper that all members of the community get to celebrate
it,” said Bomzon.
He is also a member of the All Buddhist
Minority Welfare Association (ABMWA), which has about 10 different
Buddhist communities as members and they include the Tamangs, Bhutias,
Sherpas and Yolmos, among others. The general secretary maintained the
organisation has also been demanding Buddha Jayanti to be declared a
state holiday.
“Another problem we face is that many of
our community members working in the town areas do get sectional
holiday on Buddha Jayanti, but those employed in the tea gardens and
cinchona plantations are left out. We feel if a state holiday is
declared, those working in these two sectors will also be able to
celebrate the festival,” reasoned Bomzon.
According to Bomzon, the Buddhist
population in West Bengal is about 5.5 lakh of which 3 lakh live in
Darjeeling district while a few thousand in the neighboring district of
Jalpaiguri.
It may be recalled that demands for
separate development councils by various communities in the hills have
mushroomed up. This development sprung up ever since Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee formed the Lepcha Development Board and the Tamang
Cultural Development Board recently.
The process to convert 10 hill
communities into scheduled tribes has also been started by both the
state government and the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, a demand
which was taken up by BJP candidate SS Ahluwalia, who received the
GJM’s backing.(EOIC)