Representatives of Nasya Sheikhs (Rajbanshi Muslims) took out a procession here on Monday to demand the withdrawal of The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, and OBC status for the community.

Around 50 lakh members of the community live in north Bengal, with higher concentrations in Cooch Behar, Malda, South Dinajpur and North Dinajpur districts.

“We want the Centre to withdraw the waqf amendment bill immediately. The law will affect the interests of the minority community. Today, we sent a memorandum seeking the bill’s withdrawal to the President of India through the district magistrate,” said Aminal Haque, secretary of the Nasya Sheikh Unnayan Parishad.

Sheikh, who is also the vice-chairman of the Nasya Sheikh Development Board formed by the Mamata Banerjee government, said the state should appoint someone from the community as the board’s chairman.

“Unlike the development boards of other communities where a member of the community concerned is in the chairman’s post, the district magistrate of Cooch Behar, ex-officio, is the chairman of our board. We want the state to change it,”
said Haque.

Hundreds of Nasya Sheikhs assembled on the Raasmela Ground in the heart of the Cooch Behar town on Monday morning and marched to the district magistrate’s office.

A delegation of Nasya Sheikhs submitted memorandums to the DM detailing the community’s demands.

“We have sent a 13-point charter of demands to the chief minister and want her to ensure that the community is classified as Other Backward Class (OBC). We also demanded that the state government set up a separate waqf board for north Bengal,” said a member of the Parishad who joined the march.

He said the state had so far allotted ₹2 crore for the Nasya Sheikh Development Board.

“We have spent the grant to execute some projects for the benefit of the community in different districts of north Bengal. Now, we want the government to allocate more funds for the board,” he added.