The Bengal government has reconstituted the Kamtapuri Bhasa Academy and brought in several political faces, including the head of a Rajbanshi political outfit.

On March 7, the state issued a notification, saying the academy would have an 11-member committee with Amit Roy, the president of the Kamtapur Progressive Party (KPP), as the chairman.

In the past few days, the KPP was critical of the BJP for not meeting their longstanding demands of a North Bengal state and the inclusion of the Rajbanshi language in the eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution.

The KPP also decided to launch a “no vote to BJP” campaign later this month.

Bajle Rehman, the former chairman of the committee, has been made the chief
advisor of the committee. Kailash Karjee, Uttam Barman, Amulya Debnath and Prabhash Chandra Seal are the new members of the committee.

Most members of the committee have political affiliations.

Some apolitical members of the committee expressed disappointment with the inclusion of political faces in the committee. They noted that the academy had been formed in 2017 for the conservation and propagation of the Kamtapuri (a variant of Rajbanshi) language.