The All-India Matua Mahasangha on Sunday launched a movement demanding a 100km rail link between Nadia’s bordering town Karimpur and district head quarters Krishnagar, the timing and the demand hinting that the outfit headed by BJP MP Shantanu Thakur was trying to mount pressure on the BJP-led Centre.

The organisation began a three-day walk to cover 100km from Karimpur to Krishnagar. On Tuesday, a delegation led by All-India Matua Mahasangha president Subrata Thakur will submit a memorandum before the Nadia administration prior to addressing a public rally in front of the district magistrate’s office.

The fresh movement for rail link, a Matua source said, was a planned move to convey the community’s displeasure with Delhi.

"We have been told repeatedly that the Citizenship Amendment Act will be implemented, but the promises made by BJP leaders have remained on paper... This rail link is a long-standing demand and so we are raising it to draw the Centre’s attention,” sai a source.

AIMM leader Joyanta Roy, who is also the convener of the Nadia North organising committee, however, ruled out the rail link demand had anything to do with the citizenship issue.

“It's not a pressure tactic on Centre on the citizenship demand. It's a different issue and we are protesting because the Centre has always shown reluctance in meeting this demand from people living in at least three subdivisions spanning Nadia and Murshidabad,” he said.

“More than 75 years have passed since Independence, but linking Karimpur with Krishnagar is still a dream. We want to force the Centre to change this approach,” Roy added.

The Centre took 53 years after Independence to conduct the first feasibility study for the stretch — the fifth survey in real terms — when in 2000 then railway minister Mamata Banerjee ordered it. But the initiative did not yield results.

Then railway minister Lalu Prasad in the 2002-03 rail budget announced a fresh survey for only 13km up to Charatala (Chapra), which was completed in 2004.

“But nothing has been delivered in reality,” said Roy, blaming the Centre.

A railway official said that the demand for the rail link is genuine, but there are some technical issues involved.

“Since the scope of freight in the stretch is very poor and it will be an exclusively passenger service, the economic feasibility of the project is negative. While we need to invest Rs.2,500 crore to roll out the project, the eventual return on investment would be nil,” a senior railway official in Sealdah said.