JMM patriarch and Rajya Sabha MP Shibu Soren has batted for writing names of railway stations in Jharkhand having a sizeable Bengali-speaking populace in Bengali.

In a letter written to Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday and released to the media by the JMM on Thursday late afternoon, Soren requests the ministry to identify such stations with sizeable Bengali populace in consultation with the Jharkhand government and write the station names both in tribal and Bengali language along with Hindi and English.

Soren is the central president of the JMM and chairperson of state coordination committee.

As per railway rules in practice, the names of railway stations are written in Hindi, English and in a local language.

“Jharkhand was part of Bengal presidency till 1912 and thereafter it became part of Bihar. The Indian railways came into existence in 1908 and started setting up railway halts and names of all railway stations of southern Bihar (currently Jharkhand) used to be written in English, Hindi, Bengali and in special places in Odiya,” the letter reminds

“Accepting the importance given to local languages in the constitution of India and after inclusion of Santhali language in the eighth schedule names of several railway stations were also written in Santhali language,” the letter further reminds.

“The region of Santhal Pargana, Manbhum, Singhbhum, Dhalbhum and Panchpargania have sizable Bengali-speaking populace. Names of railway station in Pakur, Barharwa, Jamtara, Mihijham, Madhupur, Jasidih, Maithon, Kumardhubi, Chirkunda, Kalubathan, Dhanbad, Gomoh, Parasnath, Hazaribagh, Muri, Ranchi, Hatia, Chakulia, Galudih, Rakha Mines, Tatanagar, Chandil, Kandra, Chakradharpur, Chaibasa and Barkakhana used to be written in Bengali,” the letter informs.

“However in the last few years, the names in Bengali have been deleted which is impractical and unfortunate. The Bengali-speaking populace in these areas are domicile of the state and it is their demand that railway station names should again be written in Bengali,” the letter states.

Chairperson of Bongo Utsav, a socio-cultural organisation of the Bengali-speaking populace, Tapas Mitra welcomed the step of the JMM leader.

“We have been making representations with the district administrations and also with the chief minister (Hemant Soren) and JMM leaders in this regard and are happy that the senior JMM leader has taken up the issue with the railway minister. It is a legitimate demand as in several areas Bengali speaking populace is as high as 42 per cent,” said Mitra, a senior advocate in Jamshedpur civil court.

Bengali Yuva Manch chief patron and JMM central general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said that the letter has been written to respect the sentiments of a large number of Bengali-speaking populace in the state who are mostly original settlers.