The West Bengal Rai Development Board has started its operation with
30 general body members owing allegiance to the Kirati Khambu Rai
Sanskritik Sansthan, although the objection raised by the Khambu Rights
Movement was yet to be addressed.
M.S. Rai, the chairman of the Rai board, said the first governing
body meeting of the board had been held in Darjeeling on Saturday. "The
board belongs to all Khambus living in Bengal. It will work for their
development. Today, we distributed Rs 1 lakh each to 20 poor Rai
families from the hills. This is the first instalment of Rs 2 lakh we
intend to give to each of these families for constructing houses," he
said in Darjeeling.
The KRM has expressed unhappiness at the board's functioning without
taking it into confidence. "We were told by both the Darjeeling district
magistrate and S.K. Thade (principal secretary, backward classes
welfare department) that even though the notification constituting the
general body had been issued on February 12, it would not be acted upon
till the differences between us and KKRSS were resolved. This is totally
unexpected. We will decide on our next course of action later," said
A.K. Rai, the KRM president.
The KRM had staged a hunger strike from February 17 to 24, demanding that its supporters be made the board members.
The 31-member general body has just one supporter of the KRM.(TT)
Post a Comment