Since the early hours of Wednesday, hundreds of GCPA members and Rajbanshi community members have started blocking railway lines at Barobisha station in Coochbehar, located near the Bengal and Assam borders.

Several long-distance trains were delayed and some were rerouted. The blockade, which started around 4 am, was lifted at 11.30 am.

“We talked to senior railway officials. They have promised to take our demands higher up. We had also proposed a meeting with officials of the Union Home Ministry over our demands. Therefore, we withdrew our blockade,” said Bangshi Badan Barman, the GCPA leader.

Barman is also the chairman of the Rajbonshi Development and Cultural Board and Rajbanshi Bhasha Academy set up by the state government. “However, if we find no solution to our demands which have been pending for a long time, we may restart agitation and blockades,” he said.

Cooch Behar is presently a district in West Bengal. Since 1998, the GCPA has been demanding a separate state comprising seven districts of north West Bengal along with the Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, and Dhubri districts of Assam. In February 2016, the GCPA blocked the New Cooch Behar railway station for four days.